Mário Castelhano

Mário Castelhano (1896–1940) was a Portuguese anarcho-syndicalist, railway worker and journalist. During the time of the First Portuguese Republic, he began organising strike actions within the General Confederation of Labour (CGT). He edited the organisation's various newspapers, including that of the railway workers' union, during the early 1920s. He was elected general secretary of the CGT after the establishment of the National Dictatorship and was arrested for his part in the February 1927 Revolt, following which the CGT was banned. Exiled, he went on to participate in the Madeira uprising and later clandestinely returned to Portugal, where he organised the Portuguese general strike of 1934. He was again arrested and deported, later dying in Tarrafal concentration camp in Cape Verde. His memoirs about his exile in Angola, in which he clearly expressed his views on anti-colonialism and anti-racism, were published posthumously in 1975.