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Análise Social

Print version ISSN 0003-2573

Anál. Social  no.245 Lisboa Dec. 2022  Epub Dec 31, 2022

https://doi.org/10.31447/as00032573.2022245.03 

Artigos

An aspect of modern civilisation. The associative congresses in Portugal (1865-1926).

Um aspeto da civilização moderna. Os congressos associativos em Portugal (1865-1926).

1 Instituto de História Contemporânea, NOVA FCSH, Avenida de Berna, 26C - 1069-061 Lisboa, Portugal. joanapereira@fcsh.unl.pt


Abstract

This article focuses on a little-studied expression of the modern repertoire of collective action - the associational congresses. Considering the associational dynamics and European trends, it presents the phenomenon’s periodisation, considering the diffusion of new norms and practices of debate and collective resolution (1865-1885), the diversification of protagonists and topics (1885-1914) and, finally, their opposition in competing or antagonistic political fields (1914-1926), culminating in the military coup of May 28 1926, followed by a sharp decline of associational activity.

Keywords: associations; social movements; congresses; chronology

Resumo

Este artigo foca uma expressão pouco estudada do repertório moderno de ação coletiva - os congressos associativos. Considerando as dinâmicas associativas e as tendências europeias, apresenta a periodização do fenómeno, considerando a difusão de novas normas e práticas de debate e resolução coletiva (1865-1885), a diversificação de protagonistas e tópicos (1885-1914) e, finalmente, a sua oposição em campos políticos concorrentes ou antagónicos (1914-1926), culminando no golpe militar de 28 de Maio de 1926, ao qual se seguiu um acentuado declínio da atividade associativa.

Palavras-chave: associações; movimentos sociais; congressos; cronologia

Introduction

Christian Topalov analysed congressional activity evolution within the transnational networks of organisations, governmental and nongovernmental actors that influenced Western Europe’s public policy between the mid-19th century and the 1930s. This phenomenon was defined by the sharing of a common language, even between individuals and groups from different schools of thought, the interaction and reciprocity between various institutions with distinct aspirations but analogous modes of operation and intervention, assuming a specific model - the congress - described as a machine for producing consensus (1999).1

This article is based on a survey revealing associative congresses as a resource widely used by different institutions and social movements from the mid-19th century. It aims to present the first results of this modern repertoire of collective action inventory, which produced a documentary corpus so far unexplored as a whole2 - the collection of regulations, programmes, minutes, theses, resolutions and other documents relating to associative meetings deposited primarily in the National Library of Portugal. Its exploration, complemented by an exhaustive review of the associational press, made it possible to list 245 nongovernmental congresses organised in Portugal between 1865, the date of the first Social Congress, and 1926 when a long-lasting dictatorship was imposed, dramatically curtailing association and assembly rights.

This inventory immediately raised a first methodological issue that influenced the design of the database built for this purpose and the definition of its main fields. The participants and the regulation of associational congresses frame them within a typology of institutionalised collective action. The medievalist Tine de Moor (2008) thus distinguishes the forms of collective action characterised by regulation and resilience from the massive and episodic mobilisations studied within the dynamics of political contention (MacAdam, Tarrow and Tilly, 2001). However, the authors who study these institutions in contemporary times, valuing regulation as a distinctive characteristic, also pay attention to inter-institutional coordination and formally organised networks’ constitution with the central purpose of influencing public policies (Fernandes, 2009, pp. 21-28).

According to Charles Tilly’s classic model, modern social movements are characterised by translocal articulation, continuity and organisation, contrasting with the riots and revolts typical of the Ancien Régime. The author also highlights the workers’ movement’s interaction with middle-class concerns and the transformation of popular protest, marked by mass mobilisations and associations’ formation. Finally, “the most frequent occasion of the popular layers’ political expression” was the public meetings, usually followed by a resolution or petition addressed to parliament (Tilly, 2005). In his wake, Diego Palacios Cerezales (2011) argued that the emergence of this repertoire of collective action in Portugal became institutionalised over the 19th century.

Considering these theoretical references and data collection, the evolution of the formal norms and procedures that regulated the Portuguese congress’ activity was considered. Furthermore, the promoters and participants, the contingent alliances between different social classes and groups, and political and ideological currents were identified. The diversity of themes discussed and theses approved were also surveyed and object of another article (Pereira, 2021). The present analysis intends to illustrate how and by whom these new practices were introduced and disseminated in Portugal and how they served different purposes and social movements.

This article argues that, as across borders, congresses organisation constituted a relevant expression of the modern repertoire of collective action in Portugal and advances with a hypothesis of periodisation. The first part seeks to frame the phenomenon within the emergence and expansion of associations and social movements on a transnational scale. The second section presents the empirical results, aiming to trace the general trends of congress activity evolution in Portugal over three periods of emergence (1865-1885), diversification (1885-1914) and polarisation (1914-1926). In conclusion, it puts forward a hypothesis of categorising the political “camps” involved in this process, presenting it as a line for future research.

Associational life and congresses dynamics

Plenty of historical studies deal with the expansion of associationism in the 19th century, relating it to industrialisation, urbanisation and the construction of the Modern State and rehearsing a periodisation of its first wave of dissemination.

According to Philip Nord, between 1815 and 1848, on an international scale, aristocratic and bourgeois clubs, circles, and civic associations predominated. The revolutions of 1848 were followed up by the first popular associative upsurge, still with the distrust of liberal governments. In the decades of 1860-1870, a second stream took place. Professional, educational and philanthropic associations proliferated, created by the middle classes, with workers’ participation in mutual-aid associations, cooperatives and trade unions. In the final decades of the 19th century, religious and socialist associationism reached rural areas, and the workers’ movement was articulated in “dense associative networks” (Nord and Bermeo, 2000, pp. XIII-XXII). Maria Alexandre Lousada (2017, pp. 97-119) reveals that Portugal followed these international trends, highlighting State’s growing attention towards the associative phenomenon since 1890 and the congresses held in the first two decades of the 20th century as an expression of the associational life vitality.

Tiago Fernandes, in a comparative perspective, also considers the density and inter-institutional coordination of associationism, highlighting its relationship with the State and the mobilisation of different social and political groups. According to the author (2009, pp. 156-170), in the period between 1870 and 1918, associations acquired their massive nature and national scale, mobilising above all workers, employers, religious people and landowners, gaining legal recognition and the support of the liberal elites, who identify them as valuable instruments of social control. However, their tutelage was increasingly disputed by other more radical or conservative groups. In the inter-war period, growing state interventionism led to the articulation of these cells intending to participate in decisions on the distribution of public investment and the creation of official bodies for the different interest groups’ political representation. The process of incorporating associationism had different outcomes, including corporatism.

Thomas Davies (2014) analysed the transnational articulation of associationism in the long term. He argues that the emergence of modern associations was marked by the General Anti-Slavery Convention of London in 1840, stimulating other movements to organise similar events on a wide range of themes. By the late 1860s, the evolution towards more durable, diversified and specialised institutions of a modern type was reflected in the variety of congresses organised on an international scale. These institutions further diversified between 1870 and 1900 and became more resilient, influencing public policy on a national and international scale. Technical and scientific congresses were followed by assemblies of other social and political movements, such as workers’ internationalism and international cooperation around education, colonial issues, freethought or feminism.

Between 1901 and 1914, associations and associative congresses began to proliferate and then decline. In the first phase, new institutions appeared, and others developed and articulated themselves, achieving significant objectives, such as the first international convention on labour protection. Various employers’ organisations were also created in this period, reflecting these networks’ social segmentation. Between 1911 and 1916, the number of new associations fell exponentially. A reversed trend characterised the post-war period, with 1919 and 1920 recording the highest peak in the germination of new associations and congress activity. Peace and the creation of the League of Nations created an unprecedented opportunity for demands for economic, social and political reform and civil rights. From 1930 to 1939, consolidation and collapse were parallel with authoritarianism ascension (Davies, 2014).

Topalov’s followers, more focused on the “reformer field,” presented a different chronology. According to those, between the 1840s and the 1870s, there was a proliferation of transnational meetings where social reform emerged as a dominant theme. Then, between the 1880s and World War I, these meetings of specialists coexisted with the emergence of new typologies of political, legal and humanitarian networks and associations, all marked by the preceding scientific movement and its intellectual practices. Finally, the creation of the League of Nations induced the creation of new networks and the adaptation of pre-existing ones, partially destroyed by the rise of totalitarianism in the 1930s (Rodogno, Struck and Vogel, 2015, pp. 1-15).

The congress era in Portugal

Emergence and diffusion (1865-1885)

In parallel with the first associative outbreak amongst the popular classes, the Centro Promotor dos Melhoramentos das Classes Laboriosas [Centre for the Promotion of the Improvement of Working Classes - CPMCL] was founded, a federative project driven by the literate elites linked to the regenerative governments (Lázaro, 2014). This institution took the initiative to organise the first associative congress in Portugal, the Primeiro Congresso Social [first social congress], held between October 1865 and February 1866. It mainly brought together the emerging mutual-aid associations amongst the artisan community and agricultural, commercial, industrial, scientific, literary, instruction and charity associations, totalling 71 across the country.3 Despite the lack of regulations, it is clear that the practices and norms that governed the sessions were profoundly influenced by the intergovernmental and scientific congresses preceding it. Portuguese politicians and scientists had participated in those meetings since the mid-19th century when they joined the hygiene movement inaugurated by the 1851 International Sanitary Conference (Garnel, 2009, pp. 229-251).

Among these assemblies, especially after 1848 popular mobilisations, those that addressed the social question stand out. International penitentiary, statistical or charity congresses expressed the growing influence of the various European social reform trends - “a espessa corrente solidarista - onde conviveram liberais, maçons, socialistas e homens de cultura republicana” (Garrido and Pereira, 2018, p. 107) [the thick solidarityist current - where liberals, Masons, socialists and men of republican culture coexisted]. In addition to statesmen and academics, an artisan delegation organised by the CPMCL participated in the 1862 Universal Exhibition (London), where the International Charity Congress was held, on the initiative of the Association for the Advancement of Social Sciences, joining “all the devout men who, in the various countries, work in their respective spheres for the improvement of the poor and labouring classes.”4 In 1863 the CPMCL was also invited to organise information on workers’ associations to present at the 1863 Berlin Statistical Congress (Goodolphim, 1889, pp. 116-118).

These international congresses introduced new practices and norms of collective debate and resolutions. As noted by the president of the 1851 International Sanitary Conference, “before tackling the important questions that it [the conference] is called upon to address […] it is useful first to consider the questions of form.”5 The first question debated was that of collective or individual representation. The meetings soon came to be governed by written norms with the prior announcement of the issues to be debated, the election of peer commissions and the regulation of elective and resolutive processes. The first promoters were governments, which appointed organising committees and mixed delegations,6 bringing together government representatives, literary and scientific societies members, and the first agricultural associations and “associations for the improvement of the working classes.”7

Alongside the State, scientific societies took an autonomous initiative that, through their epistemological network, organised a wide range of transnational meetings, defining their specific regulations. They differed from the former mainly because instead of governmental nomination, the Congress participants were invited or asked to join the organising committees, which were elected among the participating institutions.8 The regulations established the participation of national and foreign specialists, submitting their papers or memoirs to the evaluation of organising committees.9 While representation mainly was individual, in some cases, it was provided that “public corporations or private societies may compete with one or more delegates.”10

The first scientific congresses held in Portugal reproduced the practices observed internationally. Their regulations, drawn up by organising committees, fixed the themes to be discussed in each session, being able to propose a certain number of questions, but always reserving part of the meetings for other subjects not included in the programme,11 stressing that “within the general programme, there is complete freedom in the choice of subjects to be discussed” and establishing a deadline for submitting paper proposals.12 The organising committees set the issues and the theses’ authors,13 providing for the creation of committees and the choice of peer rapporteurs.14 These regulations were published in advance to ensure broader participation.15

As mentioned, the Primeiro Congresso Social, in 1866, was influenced by these practices. The debate’s key questions were published in advance, and different institutions authored contributions. However, to the detriment of individual representation, institutional representation distinguished the first associative congresses, which inaugurated a new trend in the repertoire of modern collective action. The first session of this first social congress was dedicated precisely to the discussion of the norms for collective representation, “porque sendo a matéria importante, é muito natural que os meios para remediar os males sejam diversos, e as votações devem ter uma determinada significação”16 [because the matter is essential, it is quite natural that the means to remedy the ills should be diverse, and the votes should have a particular significance]. Contrary to what was decided at the 1851 Sanitary Conference, the participants were conceived only as legitimate delegates of collective institutions aiming to achieve political recognition.

Perceiving the political opportunity reflected in the elites and states’ new interest in the social question, the 1866 congress proposed “que se regularise por mais de uma lei as condições sobre que se devem fundar as associações de socorros mútuos” [that the conditions under which mutual-aid associations could be founded should be regulated by more than one law] and “que se requeira ao governo a constituição de uma comissão central encarregada de vigiar e propor medidas conducentes aos melhoramentos sociais” [that the government should be requested to set up a central commission charged with overseeing and proposing measures leading to social improvements]. These collective claims were at the root of the decree of November 22, 1866, which created a commission to study mutualism, where “[a] par de homens da ciência, estavam representadas as associações” (Goodolphim, 1889, pp. 116-118) [alongside men of science, the associations were represented]. In the following year, the fundamental law of cooperatives was promulgated, and associationism was enshrined as an original right of citizens by the Civil Code of 1867 (Lousada, 2017, pp. 97-119).

The “70s generation” was the protagonist of class struggle’s postulates, as well as of new congressional practices and norms. Unlike the liberal philanthropists, socialists advocated “a exclusão dos proprietários e seus representantes das sociedades de trabalhadores, com o fim de evitar a dominação e o servilismo” (Nogueira, 1932, p. 13) [the exclusion of the owners and their representatives from workers’ societies, in order to avoid domination and servility] and conceived associations as “um meio de ação a aproveitar para a representação e melhoramento do proletariado”17 [a means of action to be used for the proletariat’s representation and improvement]. In the 1872 International Workers Association Congress, in which Paul Lafargue represented the Portuguese section, the labour movement intervention in the political sphere was decided, fostering the Partido Socialista Português [Socialist Portuguese Party] foundation in 1875 (Oliveira, 1973). Its first congresses were an example of a new institutionalised collective action trend. In December 1876, O Protesto [The Protest] “faz público que se abrirá em Lisboa um congresso dos operários socialistas deste país, no qual se poderão fazer representar todas as sociedades de trabalhadores, por um até três dos seus membros” [makes public that a congress of this country’s socialist workers will be opened in Lisbon, in which all workers’ societies may be represented by one to three of their members]. Moreover, a collectively conceived program discriminated the themes proposed by each institution.18

The 1880s were marked by the emergence of civic celebrations competing with religious ones, such as the centenaries of Luis de Camões and Marquês de Pombal. These were part of a broader process of political massification when the emerging Partido Republicano Português [Republican Portuguese Party] mobilised the population in a great manifestation of nationalism, and in which the 1882 Primeiro Congresso das Associações Portuguesas [First Congress of the Portuguese Associations] took place. According to Magalhães Lima, Grand Master of the Portuguese Freemasons, “os centenários, as exposições e os congressos são três aspetos da civilização moderna” (Lima, 1985, vol. I, p. 115) [the centenaries, the exhibitions and the congresses are three aspects of modern civilisation].

The organising committee for this congress, which had the objective of deepening the debate that had begun in 1865 on the progression of associationism and public social security, was made up of elements linked to the CPMCL and new protagonists, such as Teófilo Braga, who would become the first president of the Portuguese Republic. The prominent leaders of the young PSP, Azedo Gneco and Antero de Quental, elected as representatives of the Associação dos Trabalhadores [Workers’ Association]19 also joined this commission. According to their report “a comissão promotora era composta na sua maioria por conservadores dedicados às associações operárias, e portanto professando princípios democráticos mais ou menos pronunciados de republicanos, e de uma minoria de socialistas” 20 [the promoting commission was composed mostly of conservatives dedicated to workers’ associations, and therefore professing more or less pronounced democratic republican principles, and of a minority of socialists].

Nevertheless, wishing to bring together all types of associations and sympathies, the promoters agreed on a shared set of proposals for modernisation and reform in the sphere of welfare, social protection and education. The meeting regulation reflected the growing tendency to privilege collective action, with all the motions for resolution sent by the participating institutions being accepted, discussed and published. Voting was nominal by associations and individuals, but “válidas as resoluções que obtiverem maioria relativa de votos, prevalecendo a maioria coletiva sobre a maioria individual” [the resolutions that obtained a relative majority of votes were valid, the collective majority prevailing over the individual majority].

The mobilisation for this forum was unprecedented, with 380 circular letters sent and advertisements published in the capital and the province’s newspapers, ensuring the participation of 150 associations of mutual aid, education and recreation, agriculture, commerce, industry, science, education and charity. The creation of a permanent council of associations in charge of future congresses’ organisation was immediately foreseen. These meetings would be held annually until 1885, organised by two departmental councils, from the North and the South. The Junta Departamental do Sul [Departmental Council of the South] was also invited to participate in the 1883 Congrès Scientifique International des Institutions de Prévoyance in Paris.21

The Church immediately followed the first expressions of this modernising mobilisation. In the origin of the Catholic congresses, Gomes highlights the influence of the first half of the century intergovernmental meetings, the “Catholic days” of Moghurtia (1848) in Germany and the Eucharistic concentrations in France (1984, pp. 13-14). Palacios Cerezales, citing the Catholic philosopher Jaime Balmes, argues that, faced with the threat of the society’s de-Christianization, Catholics appropriated “todas las armas legitimas aun cuando sean forjadas por los adversarios” (Palacios Cerezales, 2023) [all legitimate weapons even if the adversaries forge them].

The organisation of the first Catholic Congress in 1871 brought together eighteen Catholic writers and speakers, including thirteen laymen (Jorge, 2000, pp. 377-411), namely its promoter D. António de Almeida, deeply connected to the papacy and the European Catholic movement (Clemente, 1989, pp. 179-195). Not being an associative congress, this was the starting point of new organisations and repertoires. The newspaper A Palavra [The Word], one of the event’s outcomes alongside the Associação Católica do Porto [Catholic Association of Oporto], described the meeting as the moment when the “católicos se reuniram e acordaram no modo de dar impulso à regeneração do país, por meio das associações e dos jornais católicos”22 [Catholics got together and agreed on how to give impetus to the country’s regeneration through associations and Catholic newspapers] but also through congresses, with testimonies of four more meetings organised until 1885.

As the Prior of Santa Isabel described the 1882 Lisbon Congress, “os congressos católicos não eram como os concílios” [Catholic congresses were not like Councils]. As advised by Pius IX and Leo XIII, “os congressos católicos eram simplesmente reuniões de fiéis leigos ou eclesiásticos, mas predominando o laicismo, para tomarem resoluções práticas acomodadas às necessidades do momento”23 [the Catholic congresses were simply meetings of the lay or ecclesiastical faithful, but with a predominance of secularism, to take practical resolutions accommodated to the needs of the moment]. The need to valorise lay organisations determined that these first congresses privileged the contemporaneous social problems (Gomes, 1984, p. 15), becoming increasingly oriented towards political intervention by creating the União Católica [Catholic Union] (Cruz, 1980, pp. 259-270).

In short, the emergence of congress activity was characterised by the scientific movement’s ascendancy, the elites’ initiative, the multifunctional and interclass nature, and the plurality of political tendencies represented in the first associative meetings. The immediate reaction of the Catholic Church to the civil society’s “de-Christianisation,” making use of the same repertoire of collective action, was an exception to this dynamic.

Diversification and collective action (1885-1914)

Across borders, the last decades of the 19th century and the first of the 20th were marked by an unprecedented expansion and diversification of associative and congressional activity. Fernando Rosas classifies this context as the “crise do liberalismo oligárquico” [crisis of oligarchic liberalism], fundamentally due to “uma inédita irrupção das massas na política, ou seja, pela emergência de novas classes e grupos sociais e de novos partidos políticos, nascidos da vaga de industrialização, do crescimento das cidades e da explosão de um moderno sector terciário” (2009, p. 16) [an unprecedented irruption of the masses in politics, that is, the emergence of new social classes and groups and new political parties, born out of the wave of industrialisation, cities’ growth and the explosion of a modern tertiary sector]. António Costa Pinto and Pedro Tavares de Almeida (2000, pp. 3-21) also argue that associations’ expansion was linked to industrialisation and urbanisation alongside the rise of Republicanism and Socialism. However, notwithstanding the aforementioned influence of the new political parties, the process of political mobilisation expressed in the form of associative congresses, which, as beyond borders, specialised in different typologies and themes, should also be highlighted.

The first associative typology to organise an exclusive meeting was the trade union one, in 1885, under the influence of the socialist party but on the initiative of the Associação dos Ferreiros e Artes Correlativas [Association of Blacksmiths and Related Arts].24 If the trade union congresses were not the most mobilising ones,25 they were undoubtedly the most prolix, with 21 national and 12 regional meetings organised in the period under analysis. The unionists were also pioneers in the movement’s national and international articulation.26 In 1894, the Confederação Nacional das Associações de Classe [National Confederation of Class Associations] was founded, which Azedo Gneco represented at the 1896 International Socialist Workers and Trade Union Congress in London.27

In line with trade unionism development across borders towards the vertical organisation by industry and not by trade, 61 sectorial congresses were also held in this period. In 1907, the União das Artes Gráficas Portuguesas [Union of Portuguese Graphic Arts] sent a delegate to the Fifth International Typographic Congress, thus learning the practical results of the new doctrine of the French CGT. Revolutionary syndicalism became a long-lasting influence on the Portuguese trade union movement, with the impulse of the anarchists adhering to the practice of direct action and the apology of apoliticism (Freire, 1993; Pereira, 2013).

The mutual-aid associations and the cooperatives also organised their first congresses in the last decade of the 19th century. However, it was during the republican period that their most mobilising meetings were organised, benefiting from the republican militancy in their ranks and the first attempts to integrate associational life into the new regime. The president of the young Republic, Teófilo Braga, presided over the 1911 Congresso Nacional das Mutualidades [National Congress of Mutualities], in which the Federação Nacional das Associações de Socorros Mútuos [National Federation of Mutual-Aid Associations] was founded. It was decided to also struggle for the foundation of a national federation of cooperatives and a general secretariat for social security in which the associative movement would be represented.28

Notwithstanding the proximity to the political power of these latter sectors, all protagonists of congressional activity within popular associationism strove to deepen the mechanisms of democratic participation. The primacy of collective representation should be highlighted, with associations being invited to be represented,29 specifying that a general assembly should be convened for the election of delegates,30 whose names were previously published in the workers’ press.31 Delegates’ mandates, bearing the association seal, were reviewed by two commissions, one from the North and the other from the South.32

Its promoters thus publicised the idea that these conclaves were legitimate representatives of a collective movement, rejecting its partisanship. According to O Protesto Operário [The Workers’ Protest], during the organisation of the 1890 congress of the mutual-aid societies,

um grande número de associações tem já aderido ao congresso promovido pela Associação Humanitária Camões. Muitas dessas associações têm já eleito mesmo os seus delegados. Veremos se desta vez o congresso das associações, tão bem iniciado em 1881, corresponde aos fins para que é convocado. O primitivo congresso, como se sabe, foi escangalhado pela ambição política dos republicanos, que fizeram da eleição da junta departamental do Sul uma questão partidária. Desta vez, porém, o congresso compõe-se apenas de associações de socorros-mútuos, não podendo ser eleitos delegados senão os sócios dessas associações.33

[a large number of associations have already joined the congress promoted by the Camões Humanitarian Association. Many of these associations have already elected their delegates. We will see if the congress of associations, so well begun in 1881, corresponds to its convened purposes this time. The first congress, as we know, was scuppered by the political ambition of the republicans, who made the election of the Southern Departmental Council a party issue. This time, however, the congress will be composed only of mutual-aid associations, and only the members of these associations could be elected as delegates].

Democratic practices also deepened concerning the meetings’ direction. A general regulation drawn up by the organising committee was discussed and voted on during the congress’s first session.34 The assemblies elected the bureau and the commissions to verify powers and give opinions on each agenda point.35 Moreover, there was a growing effort to involve grassroots associations in theses and resolutions’ construction. Militants were invited to send “quaisquer teses sobre assuntos de interesse para estas associações” [any thesis on matters of interest to these associations].

Finally, the delegates could present new proposals and motions during the assemblies36 sending them to the bureau and submitting them for the consultant committees’ consideration or directly to the assemblies’ vote.37 About the 1891 Congresso Operário [Workers’ Congress], O Protesto Operário wrote: “quem assistiu às sessões do último congresso surpreendeu-se com a avalanche de propostas mandadas para a mesa, por parte dos representantes das diversas classes”38 [those who attended the sessions of the last congress were surprised at the avalanche of proposals sent to the table by the representatives of the various classes]. Notably, the theses discussed and approved in the workers’ and popular associations congresses primarily resulted from the authorship of a commission, of one or several associations, in contrast to the individual authorship of previous scientific congresses.

However, there was a general trend towards collective action valorisation among these latter movements and social groups and the distinction of a new typology of congresses devoted explicitly to discussing themes related to the “social question.” Their regulations reflected, as Topalov argues, the intention to “manufacture consensus,” confectioning norms that seek to broaden the personalities’ participation, and increasingly the institutions for collective action involvement, in the proposals drafting, discussion and approval of resolutions addressed to the public authorities.

Medical societies, for example, started their congress activity conciliating the defence of professional interests with health reforms. Portuguese physicians were represented at the international antituberculosis congresses of 1888 and 1889 and inaugurated their first national congress in 1895.39 Following this, the medical doctor Miguel Bombarda, who would become civil chief of the republican revolution, presented a report to the Sociedade de Ciências Médicas de Lisboa [Lisbon Society of Medical Sciences] to create a Liga Nacional contra a Tuberculose [National League Against Tuberculosis], which was founded at the second congress against tuberculosis in 1899. This league organised four national congresses (Lancastre, 1908, pp. 94 et seq.). In the first, physicians, veterinarians and pharmacists’ participation was expected; in the remaining meetings, the league’s nuclei were already represented, and the collective nature of the delegations was strengthened (Vieira, 2018).

In addition to medical doctors, teachers and pedagogues stood out as the promoters of a broad congress activity. These began by organising a Portuguese delegation to the 1892 Congreso Pedagógico Hispano-Portugués-Americano (Salvador Bernabeu, 1987, p. 81) led by the republican leader Bernardino Machado, who had already represented Portugal in the 1889 Congrès International de l’Enseignement Primaire.40 In 1907, the Liga Nacional de Instrução [National Educational League] was created within the Journalists’ Association, inspired by the model of the French Ligue de l’Enseignement, to promote the improvement of national education41 and which, like the mutual-aid societies and cooperatives, would benefit from its leaders’ convergence with the republican movement. Its 1912 congress was attended by the president of the Republic, the Minister of Internal Affairs, and the directors of primary, secondary and higher education.42

In this sphere, the congresses evolve progressively from personal representation to institutional delegacy. In 1909, only the delegates of the League’s nuclei were ordinary members. Adherents attended the congress free of charge but did not participate in the discussion.43 At the same time, the União do Professorado Primário Oficial Português [Union of Portuguese Official Primary School Teachers] was created, which, simultaneously with the League organised, in 1914, the first of 12 pedagogical congresses of primary teachers, merging the defence of professional interests with proposals for public education reform (Adão, 2013, pp. 217-221).

In addition to the hygienist and pedagogical movements, scientists, men and women of letters also led a significant congressional activity in the struggle for free thought, peace and feminism. However, the emerging labour movement’s role in these social movements should also be underlined. The 1895 Congresso Anticlerical [Anti-clerical Congress], held in Lisbon, brought together delegates, “filiados nos centros socialistas, membros das associações de classe federadas e outros sociocratas que a ele queiram assistir” [affiliated to socialist centres, members of federated class associations and other sociocrats who wished to attend], as well as “livres pensadores do campo republicano” [free thinkers from the republican camp]. The 1900 second anticlerical congress already had as its purpose the federation of the recently created civic associations (Catroga, 2001, pp. 308-326).

On Republic eve, the organisation of the I Congresso Nacional do Livre Pensamento [First Freethought’s National Congress] on the initiative of the Associação do Registo Civil [Civil Registry Association] consolidated the movement’s national scale. A vast mobilisation process preceded it within the popular societies and the republican press, which resulted in broad and plural participation. Five more freethought congresses were organised, and in 1913 the young Republic hosted the VII Congresso Internacional do Livre Pensamento [VII Free Thought International Congress].44

Female activism has antecedents within the labour movement and the participation of prominent republicans in the free thought congresses. However, it should be highlighted that the first feminist meeting was initially announced and programmed as the I Congresso Nacional da Paz [First National Peace Congress] in 1906 but ended up being the presentation of the Secção Feminista da Liga Portuguesa para a Paz [Feminist Section of the Portuguese League for Peace], which the writer Olga de Morais Sarmento dedicated to the Feminist Problem.45

The Catholic movement also developed and diversified during this period. Among the six late 19th century congresses, the 1895 Congresso Católico Internacional [International Catholic Congress] stands out, being proposed by pontiff Leo XIII as part of the Saint Anthony 7th centenary celebrations.46 Its nature is significantly different from that of the popular or civic ones, with the organising committees being composed of high-ranking individuals from the clergy and nobility47 and the assemblies’ direction attributed to the highest hierarchy’s prelates.48

However, at the dawn of the 20th century, a new typology of Catholic associations emerged, the Círculos Populares Católicos [Catholic Popular Circles], contesting the idea of class struggle and defending that Catholic morality would ensure norms of reciprocity between workers and employers (Sardica, 2004, pp. 367-383). The Congressos Anuais das Agremiações Populares Católicas [Annual Congresses of Catholic Popular Associations], held between 1906 and 1910, alternated with the congresses of the Partido Nacionalista [Nationalist Party] since, according to Gomes (1984, p. 18), their leaders were the same. Notwithstanding the direction of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, they inevitably mobilised a significant set of institutions for collective action,49 giving rise to the Federação das Agremiações Populares Operárias [Federation of Popular Workers’ Associations].50

Finally, the congressional activity of the interest groups or employers - the agricultural, commercial and industrial associations - should be mentioned. In 1860, the RACAP - Real Associação Central da Agricultura Portuguesa [Royal Central Association of Portuguese Agriculture] was founded, presided over by the monarch and including landowners, but also scientists and intellectuals aligned with and integrated into the international physiocratic movement, whose first agricultural congress dates back to the 18th century.51

The 1888 Primeiro Congresso Agrícola [First Agricultural Congress] was an unprecedented mobilisation process. The RACAP called all the agricultural landowners to preparatory meetings in the town halls, bringing together hundreds of farmers in each municipality. The congress brought together approximately a thousand people. Previously, regional congresses had been held in Évora, Santarém and Guimarães. The Liga Agrária [Agrarian League] and a new set of grassroots associations emerged from this process.52 Since then, the employers’ congress activity has also diversified. The practices and norms of these meetings reveal a repertoire of collective action influenced by the scientific tradition but already taking on a claiming dimension centred on the specific interests of agricultural landowners and led by the RACAP. Finally, it is worth mentioning two meetings that simultaneously reflected the enlightenment tradition and the regeneration myth that permeated the 19th-century movement towards effective colonisation in line with international trends - the 1901 Congresso Colonial [Colonial Congress] and the 1910 Congresso Nacional [National Congress]. Both were attended by various scientific societies, commercial, industrial, agricultural and class associations, and private companies.53

In the 1910 National Congress, and for the last time, the types mentioned above of employers’ associations and representatives of the working classes met in the same congress.54 According to A Voz do Operário [Workers’ Voice], although the workers’ representation was not numerous, their delegates were able to “em face da burguesia, expor clara e precisamente as ideias que hoje agitam e convulsionam o quarto estado” [in the face of the bourgeoisie, expose clearly and precisely the ideas that today agitate and convulse the fourth estate].55 This was the last trace of the interclass stage in the evolution of the associative movement. Above all, the following period was characterised by polarisation, mirroring the passage from an “Enlightenment-inspired model to the formation of interest groups, which occurred in parallel with the process of state and public administration modernisation” (Subacchi, 1997, p. 157).

Polarisation and conflict (1914-1926)

The First Republic was perceived as a political opportunity, especially for those movements in which the new rulers actively participated. Conversely, a threat to those who defended the status quo, such as the Catholics. Moreover, with the Ministry of Labour’s creation in 1916 and the 1919 package of social legislation promulgation, the State’s increasing intervention was also noticed as a threat to employer interests. The first democratic experience in Portugal is thus marked by the climax of this mobilisation process and a growing social and political polarisation - the “momento glorioso” [glorious moment] of free associationism was crossed by conflict (Lousada, 2017, pp. 97-119).

The dynamics of political contention (MacAdam, Tarrow and Tilly, 2001), which became more acute, especially in the post-war period, has been studied in the context of doctoral theses defended in recent years, revealing different actors and their relationship with the State. Joana Dias Pereira (2013) revealed that, despite anarcho-syndicalism hegemony in the CGT, state intervention in the sphere of social protection, in the regulation of labour relations and supply markets was demanded by mutualists, trade unionists and cooperatives. David Pereira (2012) has studied the social impact of the 1919 package of social legislation, arguing that this mobilised the workers’ movement in its defence and the employers’ in protest. Ana Catarina Pinto (2016) analysed the confrontations between the União dos Interesses Económicos [Union of Economic Interests], an alliance of employers’ associations, and the União dos Interesses Sociais [Union of Social Interests], of workers’ and popular institutions, resulting from the first government intentions to balance the public accounts, through tax reform and direct intervention in the financial market.

This juncture culminated in the military coup of 1926, whose programme was, in its true essence, “a despolitização e desmobilização política” (Rosas, 2012, p. 132) [depoliticisation and political demobilisation] directed against associations and social movements that fought for social reform and emancipation and which in the immediately preceding period reached their maximum expansion, articulation and politicisation (Pereira, 2019). This was, however, complemented by the mobilisation of other interest groups, which also resorted to public congresses as a privileged organisational resource.

In 1914, the I Congresso Nacional Operário [First National Workers Congress] was held, and the labour movement was reunified within the União Operária Nacional [National Workers Union]. Despite the broad influence of revolutionary trade unionism, most of the presented motions referred to the emerging social legislation. The Confederação Geral do Trabalho [General Confederation of Labour] was founded after a long cycle of broad struggles at the II National Workers Congress in 1919. Once again, the legal regulation of labour relations stood out, namely the eight-hour working day.56

In the post-war period, the political alliance that underpinned the republican revolution of 1910 reconstituted itself after overcoming the severe and monarchist threats (Samara, 2003), giving rise to a government marked by a new interventionist conception of the State. On the other hand, the movements traditionally influenced by the republican movement continued to structure themselves in straight partnership with the public bodies created to implement State’s new social functions (Pereira, 2012).

The mutualist movement continued to benefit from official support, with permanent representation on the Conselho Nacional de Previdência Social [National Council of Social Welfare], and its activists co-opted into the Ministry of Labour. In addition, the head of State chaired the 1916 mutual-aid associations’ national congress, and several other government members were represented.57 The 1921 I Congresso Nacional Cooperativista [First National Co-operative Congress] was promoted by Andrade Saraiva, the director of the recently created Instituto de Seguros Sociais Obrigatórios e Previdência Geral [Institute of Compulsory Social Insurance and General Welfare], in a context where “os poderes públicos veem com simpatia aparecer uma instituição que podia ajudá-los a combater a carestia de vida”,58 [the public authorities were sympathetic to the appearance of an institution that could help them combat the rising cost of living] and in which the Federação Nacional das Cooperativas [National Federation of Cooperatives] was founded.59

Official support was also given to the I Congresso Feminista e de Educação [Feminist and Education Congress] in 1924, organised by the Conselho Nacional das Mulheres Portuguesas [Portuguese National Council of Women], founded in 1914. The Portuguese State was even represented by this Council president, Adelaide Cabete, at the international feminist congresses in Rome (1923)60 and Washington (1925).61 Representing the Portuguese State were delegates from the Liga Africana [African League], an African proto-nationalist association based in Lisbon, to the 1921 Pan-African Congress. The III Pan-African Congress had a session in Lisbon in 1923, when the leaders of the African League, the former minister and the minister of Colonies, received the movement’s founder, William E. B. Du Bois (Andrade, 1997).

The growing State intervention boosted both workers’ collective action, civic movements, and employers, although in clear divergence. During and after the Great War, in the context of intense social unrest (Pereira, 2014), the most significant and articulated employers’ congressional activity was recorded. The process began in 1914 with the organisation of the I Congresso Nacional das Associações Comerciais e Industriais [1st National Congress of Commercial and Industrial Associations]. Since then, eight more employers’ congresses of national scope were organised, amongst which the 1919 and 1921 Congressos das Associações Patronais [Congresses of Employers’ Associations], insurgent against the package of social legislation and, above all, the eight hours work-day law.62

Six sectorial employers’ congresses, eight regionalist congresses, and a colonial congress were organised up to 1926, demanding economic promotion and state protection, with the participation of commercial, industrial and agricultural associations. In February 1924, the employers’ associations founded a political party called the União dos Interesses Económicos [Union of Economic Interests], providing their direct representation in the parliament.

These meetings are no longer aimed solely at bringing together associations. Instead, their regulations allowed foreign chambers of commerce with headquarters in Portugal, firms, companies, merchants, Portuguese or foreign industrialists, and managers of banking or commercial houses.63 There was also a connection between this and the Catholic movement, in which the dual participation of António de Oliveira Salazar is the most eloquent example.64

As Ernesto Castro Leal (2015, p. 54) argues, the Church also tried to represent organised interests directly. In this period, lay organisation and the partisan intervention of Catholics developed and articulated with the foundation of the União Católica Portuguesa [Portuguese Catholic Union] in 1913 and its political party, the Centro Católico Português [Portuguese Catholic Centre], in 1915 (Gomes, 1984, p. 18).

From the 1913 Congresso das Juventudes Católicas [Congress of Catholic Youth] until 1926, the Church organised dozens of congresses. These meetings were intended only for prelates, but the majority mobilised lay people within religious associations. For example, the 1923 Congresso Nacional Eucarístico [National Eucharistic Congress], in the city of Braga, brought together nearly 3000 people and more than 100 institutions and its committee of honour included a wide range of representatives from the armed forces, public institutions and associations, as well as members of the nobility and the academy.65

Between 26 and 30 May 1926, the Congresso Mariano Nacional [National Marian Congress] was organised in Braga, from where the military forces that would end the first Portuguese democratic experience came out. This meeting closed the month of Mary “numa apoteose litúrgica e teológica de âmbito e repercussões nacionais” [in a liturgical and theological apotheosis of national scope and repercussions] (Gomes, 1984, p. 61).

Conclusion

Based on this census, it was possible to proceed with the evolution of congressional activity’s first general characterisation and to illustrate its relevance within the modern repertoire of collective action. Although institutionalised (De Moor, 2008; Fernandes, 2009), the congressional activity took on a political and increasingly conflictual nature (MacAdam, Tarrow and Tilly, 2001).

As shown, through congressional activity, different institutions and movements had the purpose of presenting themselves in the eyes of the authorities and public opinion as respectable, united, numerous and committed (Tilly, 1999, pp. 253-271), improving the delegation norms in order to ensure increasing representative legitimacy. They formed blocs composed of different political and ideological tendencies which, through congresses, endorsed shared programmes in different areas and founded federative structures, in some cases gaining a representative status in official bodies. With the international context as an inspiring example and the State and elites’ increasing interest in associations’ proposals, congressional activity created a mobilising perception of a political opportunity to achieve new objectives, forcing the authorities to attend to their demands.

In Portugal, this process followed the international trends with some delay. From 1865, the phenomenon’s first expressions were preceded and influenced by its diffusion on an international scale since the 1840s. Moreover, its dissemination and diversification beyond national borders also precede that of the national ones until 1885. Except for the catholic reaction, Portuguese congressional activity in this emerging period was characterised by the convergence of different associative typologies, representing diverse social groups, interests and political activists whilst on a transnational scale since 1870, a wide range of congresses already mirrored the autonomation of a panoply of new social and political movements.

From 1885 until the post-war period, Portugal moved closer to international trends with the emergence of new social movements, the specialisation of congressional activity, the progressive development of class antagonisms and the proliferation of proposals for social and political reform. Although Portugal lags in the formation of the wave, its decline was early within the framework of the military dictatorship, namely within the reformer and emancipatory fields.

Considering the protagonists and alliances developed, it could be defined at least three fields following Cristian Topalov’s proposal. As mentioned, the author scrutinised the promoters and proposals of what he defined as a reformer field (1999). In Portugal, the most significant examples of this process were the medical, pedagogical, free-thinking, peace and feminist congresses and, to a lesser extent, the African proto-nationalist congresses, integrating scientific, professional and civic associations dedicated to social modernisation.

Then there was the congress activity of what we have chosen to call the emancipatory field, joining mostly workers’ institutions for collective action, idealising and carrying out self-management experiments and projects aiming for the society’s radical transformation. However, they did not seize to claim State intervention in regulating labour relations, social protection and supply markets, and the political representation of the mutualist, syndicalist and cooperative movements.

Finally, we observe a conservative field, reacting to the modernisation proposals and social mobilisation, also characterised as anti-modern and anti-democratic (Rosas, 2012). This field, in Portugal, essentially included the catholic and employers’ movements, which progressed in reaction to the antecedents. Albeit with different trajectories, this trend constitutes the new corporative regime social base of support.

Table 1 Scope of associative congresses (1865-1926) 

Table 2 Congresses by associative typologies (1855-1926) 

Graph 1 Evolution of congress activity 

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1 This article is part of a research project funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (CEECIND/00764/2017) on institutionalised collective action in the long term. I want to thank Diego Palacios Cerezales for his willingness to read, his fundamental suggestions in preparing this article, and the referees of Análise Social.

2 On associative congresses we point out the collection of documents relative to the first workers’ congresses by Carlos da Fonseca (1979), the inventory of the catholic congresses by Gomes (1984), the analysis of the feminist and educational congresses by Maria Regina Tavares da Silva (1983) and the entries on the feminist congresses, by João Esteves; on free thought, by Luís Farinha; industrial, by Paulo Guimarães; medical, by Rita Granel; pedagogical, by Áurea Adão; and workers, by Joana Dias Pereira, in the Dicionário de História da República e do Republicanismo (2013).

3A Federação, October 14 1865, to February 1866.

4Congrès international de bienfaisance de Londres, London, Bureau de l’Association Nationale pour les Progrès des Sciences Sociales, 1863, p. VII.

5Procès-verbaux de la conférence sanitaire internationale, Paris, Impremerie nationale, 1852, p. 3.

6Congrès de statistique réuni du 10 au 15 de septembre 1855, Paris, Guillaumin et Cie. Libraries, 1855.

7Congrès international de bienfaisance de Bruxelles, Paris, DecQ, 1857.

8 “Acte de fondation du Congrès Paléoenthnologique international, 20 septembre 1865”. In International d’ antropologie et d’archeologie préhistoriques, Paris, C. Reinwald, Libraire-éditeur, 1868, pp. 2-3.

9Congrés medical international de Paris, août de 1867, Paris, Masson, 1868, pp. 3-4.

10Annales de l’association internationale pour le progrès des sciences sociales, Brussels, Typ. A. Lacroix, 1863.

11Congrès international d’anthropologie et d’ archéologie préhistoriques, Lisbon, Tipografia da racl, 1884.

12I Congresso Nacional de Deontologia Médica e Interesses Profissionais, Oporto, Mendonça, 1912.

13Liga Nacional de Instrução - Terceiro Congresso Pedagógico, Lisbon, Imprensa Nacional, 1913.

14Congresso Nacional Agronómico, Lisbon, Tip. Do Anuário Comercial, 1912.

15Programa do Congresso Jurídico de Lisboa, Lisbon, Imprensa Nacional, 1888.

16 “Congresso social”. A Federação, 14 October 1865, p. 1.

17Declaração do IV Congresso Nacional Socialista de 1880 (Oliveira, 1973, p. 25).

18O Protesto: Periódico Socialista , December 1876, p. 1.

19O Protesto Operário, 2 July 1882, p. 1.

20O Protesto Operário, 5 November 1882, p. 4.

21Primeiro Congresso das Associações Portuguesas, Lisbon, Tipografia Universal, 1883.

22A Palavra, 27 May 1876, p. 1.

23Cruz Operária, 3 and 10 June 1882, p. 1.

24Protesto Operário, 10 and 24 May 1885, pp. 1-2.

25 We were able to verify that the first Congresso das Associações de Classe in 1885 included delegations of 16 class associations and two cooperatives, in 1892, 34 associations; in 1897, 39; in 1902, 67.

26Protesto Operário, 4 August 1889, p. 1.

27 “Congresso de Londres”. A Federação, 16 August 1896.

28Primeiro Congresso Nacional de Mutualidade, Lisbon, Imprensa Nacional, 1911.

29Protesto Operário, 10 and 24 May 1885, pp. 1-2.

30Protesto Operário, 1 July 1889, p. 1.

31Protesto Operário, 15 September 1889, p. 1.

32Protesto Operário, 3 January 1892, p. 2.

33Protesto Operário, 18 August 1889, p. 2.

34Protesto Operário, 14 July 1889, p. 3.

35Protesto Operário, 2 February 1890, p. 3.

36Protesto Operário, 20 October 1889, p. 2.

37Protesto Operário, 2 February 1890, p. 3.

38 “Pedindo…”. Protesto Operário, 18 January 1891, p. 1.

39Ofício da Comissão promotora Congresso Nacional de Tuberculose, s. l., s. d.

40 “Congrès international de l’enseignement supérieur et de l’enseignement secondaire”. Revue internationale de l’enseignement, July-December 1889, pp. 166-197.

411.º Congresso Pedagógico de Instrução Primária realizado em abril de 1908, Lisbon, Imprensa nacional, 1909.

42Terceiro Congresso Pedagógico, Lisbon, Imprensa Nacional, 1913.

43Segundo Congresso Pedagógico, Lisbon, Imprensa Nacional, 1909.

44Junta Federal do Livre Pensamento: Rapport, Lisbon, Imprensa Libanio da Silva, 1913.

45A Vanguarda, 19 May 1906, p. 1.

46Atas do Congresso Católico Internacional de Lisboa, Lisbon, Mattos Moreira & Pinheiro, 1896.

47Atas do Congresso Católico Internacional de Lisboa, Lisbon, Mattos Moreira & Pinheiro, 1896.

48António Brandão Pereira - Crónica do Segundo Congresso Católico da Província Eclesiástica de Braga, Braga, Tipografia Lusitana, 1892.

49Relatório geral do Quarto Congresso das Agremiações Populares Católicas, Oporto, Typ. Fonseca & Filho, 1910; Federação das Agremiações: Relatório da Seccão Social do Quinto Congresso das Agremiações Populares Católicas, Lisboa, Escola Typ. das Of. de S. José, 1910.

50Associação Operária: Órgão da Associação de Socorros Mútuos A Democracia Cristã, June 1906.

51Congrès international d’agriculture tenu à Paris du 4 au 11 juillet 1889, Paris, impr. générale Lahure, 1889.

52Documentos Relativos ao Primeiro Congresso Agrícola celebrado em Lisboa em Fevereiro de 1888, Lisbon, Imprensa Nacional; Arquivo Pessoal de Almeida Carvalho. Agricultura, Pescas e Caça. Congresso Agrícola em 1888. Cota 12/444/pt. 47/22.

53Congresso Colonial Nacional: Atas das Sessões, Lisbon, A Liberal, 1902.

54Primeiro Congresso Nacional, Lisbon, typografia do comércio, 1910.

55A Voz do Operário, 29 May 1910, p. 1.

56Congressos Nacionais Operários, Arquivo Histórico-Social da BNL, caixa 66.

57Boletim da Previdência Social, October to December 1916; Legado do Caixeiro Alentejano, August 1934 to September 1935.

58A Ação Cooperativa, 6 January 1923, pp. 1-2.

59Teses do I Congresso Cooperativista (10-12 de Junho de 1921), AHS. Espólio Pinto Quartim, n.º 1251 B22.

60O Congresso Internacional Feminista de Roma, Lisbon, Oficinas Gráficas, 1923.

61Alma Feminina, Fourth Quarter 1925.

62Horário de Trabalho. Memoir presented to the Congress of Associações Patronais held in Lisbon on 23 and 24 November 1919.

631.º Congresso Nacional das Associações Comerciais e Industriais, Lisbon, 1915.

64Congresso das Associações Comerciais e Industriais de Portugal, Lisbon, Diário de Notícias, 1923.

65Primeiro Congresso Eucarístico Nacional, Braga, Edição da empresa Ação Católica, 1924.

Received: October 21, 2020; Accepted: June 07, 2022

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