The Caribbean seethes under Empire in the late 1920s with revolts, suppression and imperialist intervention in Haiti, Nicaragua, Cuba, Colombia, and Venezuela.

‘The Blood Bath Against Caribbean Workers’ from Labor Defender. Vol. 4 No. 8. August, 1929.

(Statement of Caribbean Secretariat, I.L.D.)

To the Working Class Organizations of the United States:

The Caribbean Secretariat of the Red Aid International herein addresses itself to all the working class organizations of the United States of America, appealing for their solidarity in the fight we are waging in the Caribbean countries against the advancing reaction and in favor of the victimized workers and peasants.

Since the end of the past year, the reactionary wave instituted in the interests of American imperialism and other imperialist powers has been rapidly advancing in all countries of the Caribbean. The bloody massacre in the banana zone in Colombia gives us the appalling balance of 1000 dead, 3000 maimed, the destruction of the Magdalena Trade-Union Federation and the imprisonment of over 120 workers who received sentences of 5 to 25 years hard work. Among the latest is the valiant leader, Alberto Castrillon, who is now serving sentence in the notorious penitentiary of Uanutico in Bogota. Lately, under a new fascist “Law of Social Defense”, more than a hundred working class militants were condemned, among whom are three members of the Central Committee of the Colombia Revolutionary Socialist Party, a section of the Communist International.

In Venezuela, the tragic events of last April were sealed in the later months of the year by the tyrant Juan Vincente Gomez, with scores of imprisonments and persecutions. Now the government is not satisfied with persecuting its enemies at home. The assassin’s hand reaches beyond the national frontier and kills Hilario Montenegro in Curazao and is preparing itself to use the same methods in order to crush the rebellious movement organized by Venezuela’s Revolutionary Party.

In Guatemala, the May Day demonstration was broken up by the bayonets of the federal army. Many of the participants were arrested and are still held behind steel bars.

In Cuba, more than seven hundred comrades are under trial, charged with “betrayal of the country” and “intent of rebellion”, while in reality they are detained for having dared to protest against the bloody regime of the imperialist tool, Machado. Like Venezuela, Cuba is not satisfied with keeping “peace” at home, but its hand reaches out to strike its death blows against its political emigres. The culminating act of this form of persecution was the murder of Julio Antonio Mella, a leader of the Cuban workers.

In Mexico, where reaction has assumed a savage character, we witness daily executions of the militant leaders of the workers and peasant organizations. Among these martyrs is Comrade Jose Guadalupe Rodriguez, executed in the state of Durango by order of the Secretary of War Calles.

Our peasant comrades who fought on the side of the government against the latest reactionary rebellion, are now being forcibly disarmed and the leaders of the peasant guerillas are being executed throughout the country. Late reactionary events are the closing up of the Central Offices of the Communist Party of Mexico and the suppression of its official organ, “El Machete”. The monthly review “Mella”, organ of Red Aid, has been censored and now has to fight many difficulties in order to be issued. “Cuba Libre”, organ of the Cuban Political Emigres Revolutionary Association, has been suppressed and its editors jailed. The number of trade-unionists, peasants and other comrades imprisoned since the beginning of the year is way above five hundred.

All over the Caribbean sector, governmental reaction is intensifying in the measure that the sharpening of the internal economic contradictions brought about by the increasing imperialism of the U.S. makes it necessary to submit the working masses to a regime of brutal exploitation.

All the revolutionary manifestations of the working classes of the Caribbean countries are met by the machine guns of the “national armies”, which instead of being utilized to sustain the independence of the Latin American peoples, are used to serve as an auxiliary force of the invading United States army. The mouths of our peasants are being shut forever with hot lead whenever they raise the cry of “Land!” When the workers even partially demand their rights, some of them recognized by the law, they get their answer from the army.

Our Secretariat finds it impossible to carry out alone its task of defending and helping the working classes of the 14 countries brutally exploited by imperialism and the reactionary governments at its service. Notwithstanding the contributions which we receive from the workers’ organizations of the Caribbean, the continual pauperization of the masses renders these contributions absolutely insufficient to care for the ever increasing number of victims.

We need help in aiding the imprisoned comrades and their families and to pay the legal expenses of the thousands of comrades we are trying to defend. A united struggle of the American proletariat and the workers and peasants of the Caribbean in favor of our victims, will prove very useful in establishing close bonds of brotherhood and a step further towards the solidarity of the American and the colonial and semi-colonial workers and peasants in the fight against imperialist reaction.

The revolutionary spirit of the American proletariat must become evident in this opportunity and duty.

The workers of the United States must help us in aiding the 2000 and more comrades jailed–with publicity, protest and demonstration, and also aid in supporting the 3500 families of the persecuted workers! Long live international working-class solidarity!

Labor Defender was published monthly from 1926 until 1937 by the International Labor Defense (ILD), a Workers Party of America, and later Communist Party-led, non-partisan defense organization founded by James Cannon and William Haywood while in Moscow, 1925 to support prisoners of the class war, victims of racism and imperialism, and the struggle against fascism. It included, poetry, letters from prisoners, and was heavily illustrated with photos, images, and cartoons. Labor Defender was the central organ of the Scottsboro and Sacco and Vanzetti defense campaigns. Not only were these among the most successful campaigns by Communists, they were among the most important of the period and the urgency and activity is duly reflected in its pages. Editors included T. J. O’ Flaherty, Max Shactman, Karl Reeve, J. Louis Engdahl, William L. Patterson, Sasha Small, and Sender Garlin.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1929/v04n08-aug-1929-LD.pdf