Cuba has an enormously rich tradition of class struggle, as rich as any country in the world, to call upon, and one that long predates 1959. A review of a tenacious, reemerging labor movement in the mid-1920s and the repression it faced as the U.S.-controlled government attempted to jail and murder it into compliance.

‘Persecution of the Labour Movement in Cuba’ by Korsunsky from International Press Correspondence. Vol. 7 No. 57. October 13, 1927.

The Republic of Cuba, a large group of islands belonging to the Antilles, is independent in name only. In reality it is a colony of the United States, from which it is only a six-hour steamer-passage distant. Immediately after its liberation from Spain in 1898 it fell into the claws of the United States, which forced into its constitution the Platt Supplementary Clause (named after the man who drafted it), whereby the young republic was compelled to permit the United States to use its two best harbours as naval bases and to agree to bring its foreign policy and even its home policy into consonance with that of the United States.

The bourgeoisie, incapable of managing the economic life of the island, allowed the immense natural wealth of the country gradually to pass into the hands of the capitalists of the United States. The Yankee imperialists are in control of the customs policy, the finances, the agriculture and the industry of Cuba. The productive power of the country is exploited in conformity with the interests of the capitalists of the United States: coffee, formerly the basis of Cuba’s wealth, has ceased to be planted since the United States gained predominance; the manufacture of the famous Havanna cigars has fallen off, because New York so desires. Thousands of workers are exposed to misery. Everything is controlled through the production of sugar, which is in the hands of two big trusts in the United States, the Cuba Cane Sugar Corporation and the General Sugar Co. The Government of Cuba, under the presidency of General Machado, a creature of the sugar planters and of Wall Street, obeys punctiliously the orders of the Yankee imperialists.

At the beginning of 1927 the trade-union movement of Cuba was the object of vehement persecution on the part of the Government. In 1925 there had taken place two trade-union congresses, which had exercised strong influence upon the Labour movement of the country. The trade-union congress of February 1925 had resolved in principle to create a National Trade-Union Federation, the foundation congress of which actually took place in August. The Trade-Union Federation, which united about 200,000 workers, did not join any trade-union international, though it sympathised with the Red International of Labour Unions. Persecution very soon began. Trade-union leaders were arrested, the textile-workers union and other organisations were dissolved. The activity of the sections of the Anti-Imperialist League and of the Communist Party, both of which were also founded in the year 1925, and a big strike formed the pretext for strengthening the offensive. The Communist Party of Cuba was forced into illegality. The leader of the railwaymen of the northern provinces, Enrico Verona, and other active labour leaders were assassinated.

The year 1926, too, was characterised by Terror. The secretary of the Trades Council of the capital town, Havanna, Alfred Lopez, “disappeared” on July 20th, 1926, which means that he was thrown into the sea by the police.

In spite of these persecutions, the Cuban Labour movement did not abandon the principle of class-war. Reformism could keep a foothold for but a short time in the national federations of the railwaymen and the electricians.

In Spring, 1927, the Government tried with the help of venal leaders to create a trade-union federation standing for peace between capital and labour, but this was impossible on account of the resistance of the workers.

On March 19th, 1927, the newly-elected executive under the chairmanship of the general secretary, Nicolas Nuniesco, conducted a campaign for the unification of the trade unions and for an amnesty for workers under arrest. The movement gained hearty support from the working masses, a fact which found marked expression during the May celebration. On June 19th there was a conference of the trade-unions of Havanna, which accepted a proposal for the creation of a new Trades Council.

A fresh wave of White Terror set in against the successful campaigns, especially when the working masses under the leadership of the illegal Communist Party of Cuba opposed the re-election of Machado as president for a further five years. A large number of trade-union leaders, of whom the majority were not Communists, were immediately arrested. The trade unions were made impossible and the Labour journals were suppressed.

The reprisals have become more rigorous during the course of the summer. The chairman and the secretary of the Trades Council of Havanna, the assistant to the general secretary of the National Trade-Union Federation and numerous other trade-union functionaries languish in jail.

In consequence of these events the work of uniting the trade-unions has become quite impossible for the present. The conference of the trade unions of Havanna, which was arranged for July 31st, could not be held.

The working class of Cuba appeal to the trade unions of other countries for a campaign against the persecutions to which the trade-union movement of Cuba, a country suffering under the yoke of the United States, is exposed. The C.G.T.U. has already handed to the Cuban legation in Paris an energetic protest.

International Press Correspondence, widely known as”Inprecorr” was published by the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI) regularly in German and English, occasionally in many other languages, beginning in 1921 and lasting in English until 1938. Inprecorr’s role was to supply translated articles to the English-speaking press of the International from the Comintern’s different sections, as well as news and statements from the ECCI. Many ‘Daily Worker’ and ‘Communist’ articles originated in Inprecorr, and it also published articles by American comrades for use in other countries. It was published at least weekly, and often thrice weekly.

PDF of a full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/inprecor/1927/v07n57-oct-13-1927-inprecor-op.pdf