Manuel Candeias
Biography
Manuel Candeias was born in 1943 in Santa Clara, Odemira. He spent his childhood and youth in Grândola. He remembers the struggle for the 8-hour day, the importance of cultural and recreational communities, and his early political work, especially in support and surveillance. He participated in activities of increasing responsibility, including agitation and document distribution, and joined the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) in 1959. He completed his military service in the Military Air Transport in 1960 before joining the Air Force, which he left to avoid being drafted into the colonial war. He then worked in the diamond industry in the Cabo Ruivo area until joining TAP in 1968 as an aircraft mechanic. His role was to form a PCP cell within the company and promote struggles for wages, better working hours, and a Collective Bargaining Agreement. In 1969, he was elected to the Lisbon Metalworkers’ Union and participated in the creation of the Intersindical (Inter-Union) in 1970 and the founding of the Democratic Electoral Commission (CDE). He was arrested on June 30, 1971, following a complaint, along with several members of the PCP (Portuguese Communist Party). At the PIDE/DGS headquarters on António Maria Cardoso Street, he was subjected to 11 days of sleep torture and 6 days in Caxias Prison, for a total of 17 days of sleep torture, statue torture, and brutal beatings. Sentenced in February 1972 to 20 months in prison, he was sent to the Peniche Fort Prison. In February 1973, he resumed political activity, participating in the violently repressed protests at TAP that year, notably the July demonstration in which Riot Police intervened, beating and shooting at workers.
