Alfredo da Assunção Diniz

(Lisbon, 29-03-1917– Bucelas, 04-07-1945)

Alfredo Diniz was born in Lisbon and, during his childhood, he sold flowers and paper with his father on the street. As a steelworker, he joined the Parry & Son shipyards still in his teens, where, after finishing his draughtsman evening course, he served as a naval draughtsman. In 1936, at the age of 19, he was already involved in the labour struggles and joined the Federation of Communist Youth, becoming a member of the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) and taking on tasks in the International Red Assistance. In August 1938, he was arrested by the police for “revolutionary activity” and sentenced to 18 months in prison, which he spent in the prisons of Caxias and Peniche. After his release, he was involved in the reorganisation of the PCP in 1940-1941, and was responsible for the Parry & Son cell and the Local Party Committee, in Almada.

He actively participated in the strikes, demonstrations and hunger marches of the first half of the 1940s. It was in the course of many of these struggles that he distinguished himself through his capacity for organisation. Alfredo Diniz was one of the driving forces of the strike movement of October and November 1942, in the Lisbon area. Already as a member of the Regional Committee of Lisbon, he had, once again, a very active role in the strikes of July and August 1943 in the region of Lisbon, the south bank of the Tagus river and Ribatejo, after which he went underground, where he used the pseudonym “Alex”.

Still in 1943, he was elected to the Central Committee of the PCP and became a member of the Political Bureau. He was also a member of the Organising Committee of the strikes of 8 and 9 May 1944, which focused mainly on the industrial corridor of the north bank of the Tagus river and Ribatejo. In 1945, shortly before he was killed, he was elected for the Political Committee and was involved in the organisation of the events to mark the end of the Second World War.

At the age of 28, he was murdered by the Surveillance and State Defence Police (PVDE) on a road in Bucelas, while riding his bicycle to a clandestine meeting. The bicycle was probably hit by a van and, when he was already on the ground, Alfredo Diniz was shot. Then, he was shot again inside the van and, after he was already dead, his body was left on the side of the road.