Agrarian structures and recent rural movements in Portugal

This paper has been conceived in two distinct parts. In the first, I will analyse the main changes which have occurred within the Portuguese agrarian structures over the past 25 years. I will rely for that purpose on an examination of the otherwise poor data provided by the Population Censuses of 1950,1960 and 1970, and by the Agricultural Surveys of 1952–54 and 1968; I will also mention briefly some changes in the productive structures, along with a constant reference to the massive rural emigration from the late 1950s onwards; finally, in the course of these analyses, I will try to clarify some theoretical points related to the ways in which I see the incorporation of agriculture into capitalism taking place. The picture which will come out of this first part provides the background against which a variety of social movements occurred in the rural areas of Portugal after the overthrow of the dictatorship by the Army in 25 April 1974; the analysis of these movements is the purpose of the second part of the paper, to which I will add a brief conclusion.