Cuba seethes in the aftermath of the overthrow of the Machado regime as U.S. imperialism imposes a new President, Mendieta, backed by Batista’s army, in an attempt to regain control of the revolutionary island.

‘Cuba: Mendieta Does His Part’ by Leon Vivaldi from Labor Defender. Vol. 10 No. 2. February, 1934.

At the cost of new murders, another Yankee imperialist puppet has been made president in Cuba. This President Mendieta, himself a bourgeois landlord, closely connected with Wall Street, formerly a member of Machado’s Liberal Party is of the same make as Machado and those who followed him. All these presidents have one aim, to crush the growing revolutionary struggle of the workers and peasants led by their heroic Communist Party and the Confederacion Nacional Obrera de Cuba. (The Cuban Trade Union Center.)

When the strike of the Sugar Workers, called during the harvest of 1933, spread to his own large estate, Mendieta, with the aid of the ABC, ordered the strikers shot. It was the wave of revolutionary mass strikes and particularly the general strike following the militant anti-war demonstrations on August 1, 1933 that forced the bloody Machado regime out of the government. Since then, more sections of the toiling masses, students and professionals have joined the revolutionary struggles as there is no other way out of their long years of suffering under the yoke of bourgeois landlord and imperialist exploitation and oppression.

The tremendous mass strike wave continuing among the railroad workers, doctors, etc., is the best answer to the economic misery imposed by the government. The greatest section of the Cuban working class, the sugar workers, who for years have toiled under a system of semi-slavery at wages of 10 or 15 cents a day for 12 hours, are now organized into their own trade union. It was through their militant struggles of the last 3 years that they forced the bosses to recognize their union and win better conditions, an 8-hour day, 60 to 80 cents wage, and in many places, control of the mills. Thousands of other workers have organized themselves into trade unions and formed an iron ring around their revolutionary trade union center, the CNOC. The best evidence to this is the recent National Congress of the CNOC that assembled in Havana with 2500 delegates representing 300,000 workers. Out of a total of 147 sugar mills in the country, 100 had their delegates present at this congress. This mighty force of the Cuban workers was pledged to continue the fight against any government set up by Yankee Imperialism.

Not a day passes but more murders are reported by Defensa Obrera Cuban I.L.D. From every part of the Island the struggles of the workers and peasants make forward strikes to end the rule of their oppressors. These struggles are taking place at the cost of many lives and torture in the prisons. During the January 16th demonstration against the military rule of Batista, four workers were killed and 12 wounded. On January 22nd Dr. Jose Barges, leader of the medical strike was murdered by a strike breaking pharmacy owner. The Mendieta police at once dispersed all protest demonstrations by the strikers. Machado had filled the prisons with revolutionary workers peasants and students. The same prisons were kept filled by the presidents who followed and Mendieta is doing his part too. This is how the bourgeois-landlord and Yankee imperialist rule in Cuba is trying to crush the militant revolutionary struggles of the Cuban toilers. There is no difference in conditions of life for toiling masses, no matter what clique rules them, all native bourgeois-landlords serve Wall Street. Only the workers and peasants government will finally make an end to the misery and suffering of toiling masses, this is the road now being led to by the Communist Party of Cuba.

THE FIRST NATIONAL CONGRESS OF THE DEFENSA OBRERA INTERNACIONAL will take place on March 18th. Under conditions of wild terror and illegality of all revolutionary working class and peasant organization, the D.O.I. has carried on for almost four years its activity, in organizing the masses in defense of the class war prisoners. It was through the fierce battles of the workers and peasants against the bloody Machado government and in the battles that are still being fought against the present new Mendieta government, that the D.O.I. has gained mass influence as the daily defender of the persecuted toilers. For about one month after the downfall of Machado, the D.O.I. enjoyed legality, but on September 29th, when the ashes of Julio Mella were brought to Havana, the mass funeral was fired upon, about 20 workers were killed and over 100 wounded and the D.O.I. once more became illegal. It is the duty of the toiling masses of the United States to express their solidarity with the revolutionary masses of Cuba and their organizations, sending solidarity greetings and pledging to effectively struggle against their common enemy, American Imperialism.

At this moment American warships are still lying in the surrounding waters of the island. Yankee Imperialism’s war machine is ready at any moment to crush the revolutionary wave of struggle now going on in Cuba. The State Department at Washington has already assigned an experienced assassin, Caffery, who is responsible for the blood bath of hundreds of workers and peasants and their families during the famous Banana strike in Colombia. We must voice our protest against the sending of war ships by the U.S. government and for their immediate departure from Cuban and other Caribbean waters. Out with murderer Caffery. Support the Cuban I.L.D.

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. 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/1934/v10n02-feb-1934-lab-def.pdf