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REBELWORKEB AMPHLET

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FrankFernindez



GUBATheAnarchists&Liberty

FRANK FERNANDEZ

MONTY MILLER PRESSSydney



REBEL WORKERPAMPHLET#6!

CUBA : THE ANARCHISTS& LIBERTYFrank Fern6ndez

Introduct ionbY Sa m Dolgoff

Translated rom the SPanishby Chaz Bufe

Fi rst Engl ish dit ion publ ished 987by

MONTY MILLER PRESSPO Box 92 Broadway 2007.

ln associat ionwith GUANGARA LIBERTARIAPO Bo x 1516RiversideStat ion'Miami , FL 33135tUSA.

Dist r ibuted n UK-EuroPe Y AS P

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RW PamphletSeries ssuedby SydneyLocal ASF-IWA'

Pr inted by BLACK CA T PRINTERS.

ForwordIn thls llttle essay our esteemed comrade Frank Fern6ndez traces

the lnfluence of anarchist ideas on the Cuban people. The develop-mqnt of the Cuban labour movement traces back to at least th emlddle of the l9th Century. Anarchlsm wa s no t a small and isolatedsect. I t was a real peoplersmass movement. The anarchist movementand the labour movement were Inseparable. They grew up together.A

hlstory of the Cubanpeople

ls not worth reading if it does norInclude the hlctory of anarchlst struggles for the free society.Although brlef, thls essay reveals lnformatlon which I did not have

ln my book about the Cuban Revolutlon and would have gladly includ-ed in the chapter nANARCHISM IN CUBAr. I refer for example,to the lnfluence of the tobacco workers ln the WORKERS ALLIANCEln Tampa and Key West, Flortda, durlng the great strikes. I am gladto note that comrade Fern6ndez polnts out that whtle anarchiststook a very actlve part ln JosE Martfrs movement for lndependenceof Cuba, they did nnot renounce their ideals of llberty and socialJustlcet.

Our comrade Fern6ndez rlghtfully deplores the antl-anarchist andpro-Castro sentlment of many sectlons of the anarchlst movementwho learned nothtng ffom the disasterous degeneratlon of the RussianRevolutlon lnto a totalltarlan dictatorshlp. They lgnored appeals forelementary solldarlty wlth our embattled, oppressed anarchlst comrad-es and workers In Cuba. Whlle there has been, as the author polnrsout, na certaln change In the pro-Castro sentlment In the I970sn,Augustln Souchy, whom I met tn 1976 or 1977 whtle he toured theU.S. for the CNT-FAI, Informed me that total lgnorance of Cubanaf alrr and hlstory and pro-Castro sentlment stlll exlsted in manyanarchlrt grouplngs. And thls remlnds me of anarchlsts who are veryenthurlastlc about the false nNlcaraguan Revolutlont which followsthe pattern Eet by the Castro counter-revolutlon.

Thuc far there ls no really thorough and reliable hlstory of anarch-lsm In Cuba" In wrltlng such a book our comrade ts maklng a verygreat contrlbution to our movement. We wish htm all success inthls dlfflcult, but necessary task The Cuban anarcho-syndicalist move-ment has in a century and a half of struggle written a glorious,Indellble page in the hlstory of the revolutionary movemenr, fromwhich new generatlons of mtlitants wlll continue to draw inspiration.

Sam Dolgoff,New York, Autumn 1986



IntroductionThls work ls a brlef overvlew of the lnfluence, llbertarian ldeas

have had upon the Cuban people. We believe that we have the duty

to fatthfully report the annals of the Cuban anarchlsts, who for more

than a century have struggled and sacriflced in defence of liberty

and for the interest of the most downtrodden classes in our soclety.

The accompltshments of the Cuban anarchlsts were of .decislve impor-

tance in social and union struggles. We will briefly review the actions

of a group of men and women, who' totally without resources, with-

out ald or protectlon, forgotten and persecuted' not only influencedthe hlstory of the working class and campesinos, but also the history

of the entire Cuban people. They certainly were the forerunners

of the Cuban proletariat.

l. Colonial imes nd Separatism

The tdeas of Pierre-JosephProudhon made hlm one of the mostlmportant thinkers of the nineteenth century; his economic theorieshad a great impact In Europe, and exerclsed a dectsive influenceon Cuban anarchism. Proudhon, wlthout a doubt the foremost modernanarchlst theoretlclan, has a following among progressive artisansand workers on the lsland. In 1857 the firsr mutualist (Proudhonian)Soclety was founded tn Cuba. However, it was only when SaturninoMartlnez founded the weekly La Aurora ln l86E that the tdeas ofProudhon really took root. The-fJ;sl--% associattonsr of cigar-mak-ers, typesetters, wage-labourers and artlsans, what we consider anlnclplent Cuban proletarlat, were organlsed in that period. Cuba tslndebted to Proudhon for, among other things, ttn creation of reglon-al centers, schools, health factlities and mutual aid assoclations.

The flrst Cuban atternpt to break from Spaln, which ended in de-feat, was the Ten Years War (186E-IE7EL Some anarchist elementsfrom the tobbaco lndustry partlclpated In the case of VlncenteGarcfa and Salvador Clsneros Betancourt, both sympathlzers of prou-dhonts federalism, they took an tmportant role ln the, directlon ofthe war. These events received insplratlon and solldarity from certainSpanlsh comrades persecuted ln Europe for thelr revolutionary ideasand who found refuge on the island.

Durlng these years anarchist thought had taken a declslve lnfluenceamong the workers and peasants of France, Italy, Spaln and Russia.The most promlnent organlzer and advocate was another lmportantflgure of the tlme: Mlkhall Bakunin. Desptte his death in l8?6, hisldeas and arguments clrculated and penetrated Europe with surprisingvlgour. The foundatlon of the Soclallst Revolutlonary Alliance (1864),the Internatlonal Soclallst Democratlc Alliance (lS6E) and a Declar-atlon of Princlples wrltten by Bakunln, influenced the more rev6iili6ilary elements In Cuba, whlch had already absorbed the, concepts ofProudhon on labour organlsatlon and the new ldeas of Bakunin gradual-li displaced that of Proudhon's upon the working class. The Cubanworkers were beglnnlng to develop class consclousness.

Towards the end of lE85 the most presttglous flgure In Cubananarchlsm came upon the scene In the person of Enrlque Roig deSan M6rtln (1843-1889), founder of the rieekly El produitor and thenew theoretlclan and organlzer of the Cuban protetariat. fne strlkeswhlch occurred at the end of the l880rs were all inspired by anarch-ists and were organized vla El Productor. This publication and Roigd9 San Martfn helped to creElE-T-ETurtonary organizdrlon calledthe Workerst Alllance of obvlous Bakunlnlst lnsplratlon.-



Thls Workersr Alllance was strongly supported In two tobacco indus-try locaEiJ-T-T[6-Tnlted Statel,- Tampa and Key West. In 1887the flrst Federatlon of Tobacco Workers was organized in Havana,thls federation had replaced the Union of Tobacco Workers, and itembraced almost all the workers tn that industry. Tampa and KeyWest followed. In these two small American towns its most outstand-tng actlvlsts were Enrique Messonler and Enrique Crecl, in additionto anarchlst activlsts such as Leal, Segura and Palomino. [n 1889a general strike was declared in Key West which ended with thetriumph of the workers in the flrst days of 1890. From Havana,the Alllance and the cuban workers had shown solidarity with the

strtkelil-throughEl Productor

they encouraged and helped orlentthe strlkers, even after the death of Rolg de San Martfn.Also from the shores of Florida, the Cuban lndependencemovement

was preparlng for the struggle fo r Independence. Tam'pa and KeyWest were genulne strongholds for lndependence partlsans, anarchlstsand enemles of lmperlal Spa ln ln general. Durlng those years, JosEMartt, the patriotic apostle of the struggle against the colonial pow-er, recruited followers and militants within the best-organized groupsof Cuban emlgres. However the anarchists grouped within the tobaccoIndustry viewed the Cuban problem from a soclalist and internatlon-altst polnt of vlew. Martf spoke with them and made concessionsIn the soclal sphere to them wlth the purpose of attracting themto the sepa ratist cause. The anarchists, lnfluenced by the persuasivepower and eloquence of Martf, began to gather ln Martlrs revolution-ary clubs and some of the most responslbl e, such as Creci, Messonier,Rivero y Rlvero, Sorondo, Rivera Montess ori, Blanco, Blaino, Segura,etc., unlted behind Martfs lndependence movement, without renounc-lng thelr ldeals of llberty and social Ju$tice.

The ald and support glven to Martl by the anarchists was enormou$both In a moral sense as well as polltlcally and economically. Martlthen declded to found a revolutionary party, with a majority of theextled tobacco workers whose unlons were tfrevolutionary soclallsttr,a euphemistlc term adopted by the anarchists of the time especlallyafter the traglc Haymarket events of Chtcago, ln 1886, when a groupof an archist labour organlzers were executed for. their supposed nvol-vement in a bomblng incldent.

May Day 1890 was celebrated by the Workersr Alllance ln Havanawlth a rally and publlc act In remembrance of those executed inChlcago. In l89l there was a call for a congress, and in JanuarylE92 the anarchists celebrated the ftrst Cuban Regional Congress.They recommended that the Cuban working class joln the ranks of

rrevolutionary soclallsmn and take the path of independence as pro-clalmed by Martl In a final trManlfesto'r they wrote a phrase whichhas passed to history n...lt would be absurd for one who aspires tolndlvldual freedom to oppose the collectlve fr eedom of the people...'r.The Spanlsh authorltles suspended the congress, closed down the anar-chlst press, declared tllegal the Alllance and deported or imprisonedthe better-known congressrsparticlpants.

The war of Independence advocated by Martl exproded in cubaIn February t895. Anarchrsts Jorned the siruggre ror ireeoom, amongthem Enrlque crecr, wh o died in combat in lg96. Lamentabre fo reveryone' . he promrses.and soclal paths promrsed by Martl disappear-ed wlth hlm, when th e apostle of CuUan IndependencedieO whltef lghrrng spanrsh rroops rn Ma y lgg5. Th e wa r ended wlth u.s. Inrer-venrron tn 1898 an d the.

.defeat.of spain. Both in exi le an d in cuba,the anarchrsts durrng thrs period aited ceaseressly to raise funds,to support, the struggl",-."Id in _addit ion, to carry ou t campaigns tnanarchlst circles rn the U.s. and Europe. Two young Itarian Jnarctristsjoined the war: orestes Ferrara and Federlco Falco. The assassrn-at ion of spanrsh Prime Mrnrsrer canovas de r cast i l lo uy it u ltariananarchrst Angiol l l lo tn rggT wlth th e direct part icipat ion of EmeterioBetances, a Puerto Rican doctor representing th; cuban exires inParis, was without doubt one of the most impo;tant factors in spainrsdefeat. c6novas declared u^poncuba a war of systematic extermin-atlon_, nsuppress the revotti, he proclaimed, ,to' tf,u l"ri rn"n andtg tlg last peseta'r. At the same time he withstood p."*ri" r.otthe U.S. State Department and the N.y. press. In the heyOay ofEuropean coloniarism and imperralrsm, c6novls belonged to rhe sam.



ellte of Emperors, Klngs and polltlclans who not only oppressed itrs

own people but also extended thelr domlnatlon to the less advanced

world. His tnfluence and reputatlon was not only among the Vatlcan'

the Austro-Hungarlan, the Russlan or the German Empire but 'also

ln the hlgh ctrcles of power and money ln England, France and ltaly'

who certalnly approved C6novasrs epresslon In Cuba.

The threg shots whtch termlnated C6novasrs llfe also Put an end

to hls crlmlnal iactlcs tn Cuba. Hls successor, Mateo Sagasta, was

a weak and lnept polttlclan, wlthout respect or symPathy among

hls peers etther ln Spaln or In the rest of Europe.-Hls

policles ofnappeasementntoward the U.S. escalated lnexorably the provocatlons

of the new Amerlcsn lmperiallsm. The Spanlsh emplre ceased to

exist" Indifference prevalled ln Europe.During the u.s. lnterventlon ln 1899, the anarchists fermented a

strike tn the brlcklayersr guitd. It was suppressed violently' even

though in the end the strikers obtained some increase in wages. Thls

strik; had rhe complete backlng of the weekly iTterra! edited by

Abelardo Saavedra and Adrlan del Valle.

2. TheFirstRepublic

Important strikes took place under the first independent cubangovernment: clgar-m-akers, bakers, carpenters, masons, were fiercelyrepressed, Just as during the worst tlmes of colonial rule. The re-public

of liberals or conservatives did not address itself to,social

problemstr and had fo_rgotten he promlse made by Martf nwlth every-one and for everyonen.

The Mexlcan revolutlon has a serious impact on cuban workersald ga$,peslnoji; the writings of Richardo Flores Mag6n and rhe gunsof Emiliano zapata were a spur to the consciousness of the Iongforgotten sugar cane workers, employed in the countryrs largest indus-try. In l9l5 the Manlfiesto de Cruces was proclalmed, whtch, by| ts, l l teraryqua| i t t f f ianarchistcomabal tv i ty: -nWemust sustain our cry with the force of our armsn and Dsllence iscompromlser are the best representattve statements of a group ofworkers that asserted the rlght to better destinies than that of thehereditary hunger they suffered for generations, especially when theywere

-themost productlve force on the lsland. In thii same year

the flrst Peasant Federatlon (Federact6n Campe -on

Las Vlllas provlncewas founded, afidoIglesias, Laureano Otero, Manuel L6pei, Jos€ Lage, Benjamin Janeiros,

Luis Meneses, Santo Garos, Miguel Ripolr, Franiisco llaragoitia, An-dr6s Fuentes, Tom6s Ray6n and Francisco Ramos. Due to the abusescommltted by the u.S. and spanish sugar companies which controlledthe llonrs share of national producti,on, the anarchlsts attemptedto conduct several strikes, but failed because of the repression un-leashed-by the government in Havana under president Garcfa Menocal,using the pretorian army and the Rural cuard to murder and perse-cute the strlkers. Thls was the most active period in the entire his-tory of the cuban Llbertarians and lasted for more than twelve yearsand ended wlth th e physical l iquidat ion of the anarchist movementrsmost selfless members.

In that perlod there were many regular pertodtcals of a libertarianorlentatlon, although many of those responsible for publlshing wereeventually deported:

E_Eglalt+ Nuevos.Rumbos, Esparraco, VIa Libre,V.oz Rebel.de. &llOariOaE Memorandum TlpoT;Alic-o;-EI-E6ietG-Ta6;;alero, and of course iTlerra!. The most ouistanOing anarchist andanarcho-syndicalist ftgu6-?ollaborated lntensely, Marceto Salinas,Antonlo Penlchet, Manuel Ferro, Jes6s lgleslas, Ernesto lllas, Francis-co Montaies, Paullno Diez and Adrfan del Valle among others. Someheld to the ldeas of Peter Kropotkln, Ellsee Recl6s, othlers were sym-pathetlc to Malatesta or Pletro Gorl, others maintalned the tradit lon



of Bakunln; and the rest and the majority moved toward the inctp-lent anarcho-syndicallsm that came from the Spanish Natlonal Confed-

eratlon of Labour, Confederaci6n Naclonal del Trabaio {CNT). In

l922Al f redoL6pez,@tf romthePrinterslUnion,organlzed the Labour Federation of Havana, Federaci6n OFrera de

La Habana (FOH), In which the most combative workers' unions,groups and Labour associatlons of the capital were lncorporated.Alfredo L6pez initiated the most dynamic stage of a long soclal

and labour process; he helped to organise unions, libertarian schools,

workersr centres, nature clubs and a workersr college' Popular Univer-sity Jos€ Martf, Universldad Popular Jos€ Martf. In those troubled

and turbulentyears, the anarchlsts, wlthout economic resources and

wlthout any help, first organized, gathered and oriented the majorityof the workers, rural and urban, throughout the island.

In 1925 and under the responsibllity of Alfredo L6pez, backed by

three workersr congresses n Havana, Cienfuegos and Camaguey respec-tively, created the National Labour Confederatlon of Cuba, Confeder-

aci6n Naclonal Obrera de Cuba (CNOC), an umbrella organisationof all the unions, fraternal associations, gullds, brotherhoods and

mutual aid assoclatlons in Cuba: 128 collectives and more than

200,000 workers were represented by 160 delegates. The most out-standing members in addition to L6pez, were Pascual Nuiez, Bien-

venldo Rego, Nlcanor Tomas, Jos€ A. Govfn, Domingo Rosado, Floren-

tino Pascual, Luis Trujeda, Paullno Diez, Venancio Rodriguez, Rafael

Serra, Antonlo Penichet, Margarito lglesias and Enrique Varona. The

most important element of the CNOC bylaws was ttthe total andcollectlve rejectlon of electoral actionft. There were in addition'

other labour-related accords and slogans: the classic demand foran eight-hour day, and for the right to strike' and a unanimous pled-ge not to bureaucratize the newly-establtshed organization.

The new president of Cuba, Gerardo Machado, a typical caudilloconsidered the political attltude of the workers

'nnotviry pdtriotTf

and unleashed a relentless and merciless persecution against the

CNOC and lts leading militants. Machado ordered the cowardly murd-ers of Enrlque Varona, the organizer of the railway workers, Margar-

ito lglesias, Secretary of the Factory Workersr Unlon and Alfredo

L6pez, General Secretary of the CNOCC. Machado Jailed or deportedevery anarchlst or anarcho-sydnicalist activist, member or militant,he could lay his claws on, and declared illegal any union or guild

he desired. For over elght years Machado attacked the work of the

anarchists, providing an opportunity for the recently founded Commun-lst Party to set ttself in a positlon of force, within the ranks of

th e CNOC. Years. later, toward the end of hts reglme, the Commun-lsts even slgned a pact with Machado.

All of thls vlcious harrassment couldnrt prevent the anarchists

from gatherlng wtthin a new organlzation, created in 1924, calledthe Federatlon of Cuban Anarchist Groups, Federaci6n de GruposAnarqulstas de Cuba (FGAC). It promulgated strikes, circulated propa-ganda and contributed to the violence and disorder of the most con-

fused and bloody periods of Cuban history, 1930-33. Machado's tyranny

lasted only untl l August l2th, 1933, and was brought down by a

general strike fermented and maintained by anarchist elements of

ihe Transport Union, first and then by the Streetcar Workerrs Union

and flnally by the masses of people.

Desplte thls trlumph, the anarchlsts dld not fare well, they ha dbeen badly hurt by the despotlc Machado government. Their mostoutstandtng thlnkers and act lvlsts had been vlct lms of government

\,

lI

ALFREDO LOPEZ

10



represslon or had been deported. After Machadors downfall, the Comm-unlsts manoeuvred to retaln thelr lost lnfluence, and began violentlyattacklng the anarchlsts. Subsequently, when a coup took place again-st the provlslonal government on September 4, 1933, the Communiststrled a strategy of seeking official support from one Coronel Ful-genclo Batista, one of the leaders of the coup and a rising figureqmong the new mllitary. Thls manoeuvre would later be known asrthe Popular Frontn.

With the obJect of regrouptng and re-organlsing, the anarchlsrstried to flnd allies withtn the revolutlonary opposltlon to Batistaand some of the more experlenced milltants became affiliated wlth

a soclaltst organisatlon called Young Cuba, J6van Cuba, led by anarchenemy of the Communists, Antonlo Guiteras. This time the re-presslon came from the same Colonel Batlsta, who, with the aidof th e Communlst Party caused the failure of the general strikein Mar ch 1935. This was one of the m aJor blows the anar chists rookdurlng thls time of soclal recovery.

At the outbreak of the Spanish Ctvil War and Revolution tn July1936, the Cuban anarchlsts rallled to the defence of the Spanishpeople and founded in Havana for this purpose the International Antl-Fascist Solldarlty, SgllOartOaA nterna (SIA), whichworked wlth dedicatlon in the mtddle of a world depresslon to collectfunds, mediclnes and arms to send to the Spanish comrades of theCNT-FAI (Confederaci6n Nacional del TrabaJo-Federaci6n AnarquistaIb€rlca). Many Cubans died in Spatn during the Civil War defendingthelr ldeals In the ranks of the anarchlst columns. After the Spanish

confllct, many returned to Cuba, together with a large number ofSpanlsh comrades who fled Europe wlth Cuban passports. Again, onthls occasion, money was collected for distressed mllltants.

In 1939, followlng orders from Mos cow, the Cuban CommunistParty made a pact wlth Batlsta, now a General, who totally lackedpopular support, and In exchange for thelr servlces and solldarltyBatlsta gave them the dlrectorshlp of a new Labour Confederation,the Confederatlon of Cuban Workers, Confederacl6n de Trabaiadoresde Cuba, (CTC) the largest labour organlsatlon ln Cuba, which includ-ed all soclal factlons, including an anarchist mlnorlty. In these years,the Cuban workersr movement, by order of Batlsta, was organlsedand legallsed under Communlst control. The anarchlsts for thelr partfounded an organlsatlon called the Llbertarlan Assoclation of Cuba,Assgclacl6n Llbertarla de Cuba, (ALC) with the purpose of regrouplng

nA anarcho-syndiialists who survived

the decade of the 19 30s.

3.TheSecond ePublic

The Cuban constltution of 1940r marked the beginning of a new

,"jublt"un era. It was the .ftrst attempt tn Cuban history to contend

wiln sociat lssues by governmental acilon, and represented^an

effort

to correct errors and- omissions under earlier regimes' A modern

anO-p.og..ssive document, this Cuban M.agna-parta reprF'sented an

ef fort o1 two generatlon;' from all soEtaftlasses and spheres ofnational life. A

-numberof problems, present in this difficult period

of our hlstory were dealt .wiitr in great detail: political, social, agrar-

i"n,--ti"i""'nO

labour related. The 1940 Constitutlon wa$ without

Ao,ilt a well-concelved document: all that was left to do was to

set lt to Practlce.-Durlngthe flrst years of the l940ts, the llbertarlans has grganised

,tfrioulfr"tfre At C. fhe basls for thelr popular support were the rem-

nants of the unlon$ that sc strongly funciioned before the mid-1920rs.

The anarchists retalned a good ieputatlon among the working class'

Uur"ut" of thetr spirlt of iombat and sacrlfice based on their self-

tess, revolutionary and uncorrupted past. They deve_loped resh cadres

oi-rnttituntr through the newly founded Libertarlan Youths, OCyenlCdPs-Llbertarlas). with the intention of recoverlng terrain lost to the

Comrnunlsts ln the unlons and among students. Further, although

the constttutlon of 1940 recognlsed the elght-hour dayand the work-

ersr rlght to strlke, lt also severely regulated these act-lvltles. Thls

situ"tf;n forced rhe anarcho-syndicallsts wtthtn the CTC to create

mllltant actlon groups ln order to defend or neSottate thelr.-demands.

Batlsta was lleited Presldent and malntalned hls alliance wtth

th; Communlst party, who, recelvlng mlnlsterlal posts, money and

medta for propaganda'among he Cuban people. They-addressedBatlsta,

;fi-

"ontlaolui"flattery] as trthe messenger of prosperityn' ald

collaborated wtth htm ai- ttre party and unlon levels (through the

officlat Communlst electoral oiganisatton as well as through the

CTC unlon federatlon controlled irom the top by them) thus betray-

i;1t, ong; more the true goals of libertartan and revolutionary union-

lsm.Cubars next Presldent, Ram6n Grau San Martfn, won the electlons

andassumedPowertn lg44.Thepeopleexpectedradical .changes

since hls goveinment was expected to be soclat-democratlc.However'

d.u" iupi the Communlsts in thelr posts and only one s-lgnificant

"h.ng"took place ln the Cuban unlon movement' On May Day 1947

c-rurl-ro.".d by the cold war, expelled the marxist$ from their hier-

archlcal posts within the cTC. But notwithstanding u.s. pressure'

Grau left'the communist Party intact. The anarchists used this oppor-

iunriy to call for free elections ln almost all the unions; hence a



number of thetr most respected comrades were elected in the CTCIn dtfferent posts. Because of thelr prestige and dedication, the anar-cho-syndlcal ists effectlvely led a number of trade unions: transport,food workers and constructlon. They were also able to sustain mill-tant actlon groups in almost all the CTC unions. In those years,the anarchlsts also set up peasants associations, based on the poorest,landless, moneyless peasants. These organlslng efforts were moreeffectlve ln the north coast provlnce of Camaguey, an old anarchistbastlon, and the coffee plantations ln the southern provlnce of Orien-te, where for many years anarchists had founded and supported freeagrlcultural collectlves.

Carlos Prfo Socarr6s assumed the presldency ln 1948 and followed

slmllar pollcies of tolerance in social and labour relations simllarto those of Grau. In 1949 the anarchi sts within the CTC manoeuvredwith kindred elements to create a new, separate trade union feder-atlon, the General Confederatlon of Workers (Confederact6n Generalde Trabaladores or CGT). The idea, following an old anarchlst trad-ttton, was to create a workersr organisatton independent from thegovernmentally supervised CTC; however, thts attempt failed dueto pressure exerclsed by the presldency through the Ministry of Lab-our, whlch categorlcally opposed lt, because of the growing lnfluenceof anarcho-syn dicallst ldeas. In 1950, Prto outlawed the CommunistParty, then known as the Popular Socialist Party, (Parttdo SocialistaPopular, PSP). Hence, once again the Communists sought an alliancewlth Batlsta.

ln March 1952 Batista, violat ing the const irut ional system of Cuba,ted a coup dtetat. The Communists took this opportunity to try to

penetrate the official bureaucracy. However, they could not recovertheir lost influence. The Cold War was at its apogee and Batistahad to be prudent with his Marxist allies. In order to fill the powervacuum among the oppositlonal forces, now in full retreat, FidelCastro, an obscure electoral ist pol l t lclan of bourgeois origins andJusulst lc educatlon, wlth a group of young revolut ionaries, attackedthe Moncada barracks In Santiago de Cuba. This action was a bloodyfallure; their 'rrevolutionaryrr program was merely a middle classone, with reformist characterist ics an d social-democrat ic content.Castro and his comrades were put in prison, and after having beenpardoned, in a few months left for Mexico. The opposition to Baristabecame violent an d, as expected, Batista retaliated in a brutal fash-ion.

By the end of 1956 there was definite polarizat ion between Batistaand the opposition. The anarchlst ALC decided to form an alliance

wlth the democratlc opposltion forces, agalnst the dictator. In thatyear, Castro landed ln the Orlente province and in th e fol lowingyear, he launched a small guerri l la war from the mountains of thatprovince. In the more important cit ies of the island, Castrors July26th Movement, his poli t ical front, won fol lowers who carried ou t

provocatlve acts, followed by the usual government repression. By

ihe end of t958 Batista ha d lost th e poli t ical war an d could no long-

er contain the rebels by force. castro became politically stronger

and won over the rest of the opposition. His social and Politicalprogram was still as it was before: social justice and reform, based

bn-the

rerurn of th e Con$tltut lon of 1940, which Battsta effect ively

nullified. The Communists, who previously had openly backed and

collaborated with Batlsta'and

even attacked Castro, changed their

posit ion and made an alt iance with castro in August. 1958. Final ly'

bn December 31 , lgsE, Batista f led Cuba an d a new historical cycle

began for the Cuban PeoPle.

14



The underground resistance process had two sta8es. rhe.firstcomm-

enced with the clandestine publicatlon of Nuestra .Pal?brg- $ema-nal(our weekty Message), organ of the Movement for Trade union Ac-

iion, (Uovimtento ?e, RcqiOn SinOicat. MAS), with the purpose-of

4. Castroismnd Exile

The anarchists parttclpated in the struggle egalnst Battsta. Someln the guerrilla forcer ln Oriente provlnce and ln the Slerra delEscambray ln Las Vlllas provlnce, others in the urban struggle. Their,objectlve, along wtth that of the rest of the Cuban people' was to

llqutdate the Batlsta dlctatorshlp However, they never fully trustedCastro. By 1956, they atready saw in Castro a potential dictator,head of a top-down organlzatlon wtth totalltarlan tralts, whose lmagewas closer to that of Httler than of Durrutl. Castro, accordlng tothe lll-concelved evaluatlqr of {he democratlc opposltlon, was a tem-porary yet necessary evll, a product o{ the confuslon, fragmentatlonand even cowardice that exlsted withln the opposttlon to Batlsta.The anarchists percelved Castto and hts revolution dlfferently fromthe polttical eltte of the tlme, who hoped to manlpulate the vlctor.At the beginning of 1959, wtth the excuse of purging from the CTCunlon federatlon those olements that collaborated wlth Batlsts, thenew nrevolutionaryn government arbltrarlly removed from offlce anar-cho-syndicalists and soclal democrats who were orlented toward theworking class movement. Many of them, In fact had been previouslypersecuted and jailed by Batlsta.

The libertarians, even though dlstodged from the CTC (now callednrevolutlonaryil), maintalned thelr preEtlge wlth the worklng class.In a Congress organized by the government et the end of 1959 theunion elements withln the 26th of July Movement, through thelrSecretary General, Davld Salvador, and allled this tlme wlth theCommunist Party and lts members wlthtn the union central, dellveredthe organization once agaln to the government, this time representedby the nmaxlmum leader of the revolutlonrr, Fidel Castro and allthls according to the best tdemocrstlc tradltionn.

Castro, anxlous to retaln power at all costs, allled hls regime

wlth the Sovlet Unlon, maklng Cuba one blg sugar plantatlon for

the proflt of the Russlans. The beneftts, rtghts and demands thatthrough more than a century of struggles, the Cuban workers hadwon at the price of thelr blood, ended as Marx once sald, n tlthe

rubblsh heap of hlstorytf. The omnlpresent and despotlc State became

the only employer and social leader. .In 1961, the old politlcal' econ-omlc and soclal order collapsed completely and the island becamea factory and a Leninist dominion.

Early in 1960, the anarchists rejected Castro, and adoPted a com-bative attltude toward the government. Ultlmately, their publications'

Solidarldad Gastr6nomlca, were suppressed. Thel Llbertario and Solidartdad

;e;;rai and the PeoPle' The struggle

ias tougher than it had been against Batista and the repression was

muct, ta"rstrer. Unfortunately, the leadership of this new civil-struggle

n""r in the hands of the if.S. anO the Cuban bourgeoisie, which had

few things in common with libertarians. The U.S' was not genuinely

interested in overthrowing the Castro regime and proved forever

i.tu"t"nq while the bourgeoisie lacked the preparalio.n and, vocation

i;-; ievoluttonary-intErprtse

of such a-

mbgnttude and caliber,

but both groups were powerful and had plenty of resources. TheCuban people did not accept communlsm and a large number became

lnvolved l; the struggle igainst the reglme. The anarchists falled

on all fronts desplte their work among the proletarlans and peasants'

carried out wlth much personal sacrifice.

The second stage *as that of exile, either through a sympathetic

embassy or illegally. In l96t the cuban- Llbertarlan Movement lugyl-rtrlento- Ltbertar'io Cubano: MLC) was founded in the United States'

ffi Uy Castrofs hurrlcane were regrouped, and

malnted contact wtth the remalns of the ALC tn Cuba. They were

few, but their labour was important for the cause of Cuban freedom.

This was a period of lntense work and sacrlfice: propaganda, collec-

tlon of monLy to rescue people from the lsland, and direct action

agatnst the Sialtntst dictatorshlp. The-1960s

were dedicated to the

stlruggle, based entirely on peisonal-

-efforts.

El . Gastron6mico (The

Rooi- Worker) began publication ln Miami and there was concertedeffort made to convtnce the rest of the anarchist world that castro

was not really a revolutionary' as so many saw him, but. a corrupt

J.rp"i. the iuUan anarchists had to work hard and be patient. Mani-

fesios, articles' essays' pamphlets, letters were necessary; hey launch-

uJ upbu"rt to old fiiendships, to the fraternal comrades of the past'

*itti'.i"tro1n

dlfficult moments had been shared. They issued s_tatements

il--Sp;i"; France, Mextco, Argentina, Venezuela, Panama' Chile' Eng-

i;"J, th" United States, in h;lf the wortd, but all ln. vain, for those

who'answered and showed solidarity were few, some because of con-

viction, others because of ideologlcal afflntty. Anarch.ists, around

the world either did not understand the situation or did not want

io- understand it; the efforts of the Cuban anarchists became a dia-

togue with the deaf.in th e mld-l970rs changes began to take place

-n the anarchlst

*orld, one began to ascertaln changes in the worldrs anti-authoritar-lan mlllleu, leis tn favour of the CuUan llbertarians but rather toward

disenchantment wtth castrors revolutlon. suddenly castro was seen

as a Communlst dictator who oppressed hls people' But lt was too

little to o tate; much precious an d important t lme .had been lost '

ivr"ni"""r"ht"ti

*e.u exiled, valuable comrades had been sacrlficed,

sore had become frustrated, others remained alone on the island'only recourse was to go underground, and then into exile.

17



:r {

ufl*

i .d,

$$

andst l l lo thersrot tedin ja i ls.Thetackof internat ionalsol idari tywith the cuban anarchlsts was notorious as nanarchismrs bad con-

sclencen,as was later said.

Thts phenomenon, comparable .only*wlth what happered to the Russ-

fan--ana?chtst$

ln ielatl6n to the'Bolshevlks

tn 19l7 and with East

ili.opu"n comrades ln post WWII-Europe,

was based on a neglect

oi ihu"" historlcal precedents, and dld a lot of damage and cost

dearlv. Lack of soiidarity aod ideologlcal understandlng, however,

Jia iot stop the Cuban anarchlsts in thelr struggle for freedom.

ln lt$ htstory of more than half a century of persecutlons' assass-

fnatlons, deportatlons and lmprlsqnments' tt had never suffered a

defeat wlth the power and magnitude ofthat brought

-byCastro'

communlsm has apparently *on; however, cuban anarchists today

Jo not accept lt. iir the past twenty-etght years we have kept our

banner high and our ldeali unchanged, wlthout ever renouncing the

desire to iet our people free from the despot that opPresses-them'

cuba and the anarchlsts have a long hlstory of the pursult of free-

aom. rne early labour struggles, the lmportant contrlbutlons to cuban

lndependence from Spaln,-ihelr

protest agalnst U.S._ lnterventions'

l-treii crftfcal attltudes toward social problems durlng the two repub-

ii"r, tfr"it sptrtr of combat and sacrlflce agalnst-the

dictatorshlps

and'disorders of Machado, Batlsta and Castro. Finally, the, unbreak-

able faith that unltes us ln the present.sinlster moment of our des-

tlny, serve as a powerful spur to contlnue the struggle until the

end'Mlaml, FebruarY 1987'

r*1ffi

18



REBEL ORKERAMPHLETERIES

#1 THE METHODSOF ANARCHO-SYNDICALISM

by Rudolf Rocker

#2 l.W.A. : PRINCIPLES,AIMSAND STATUTES

#3 MY SOCIAL CREDOby G.P. Maximoff

#4 PROGRAM OF ANARCHO-SYNDICALISMby G.P. Maximoff

LIBERTARIAN COMMUNISM

by lssac Puente

CUBA: THE ANARCHISTS& LIBERTYby Frank Fernandez

LEN]N & WORKERSCONTROLby Tom Brown

CONSTRUCTIVEANARCHISMby G.P. Maximoff et al.

#5

#6

#7

#8

20

frank fernandez cuba

Documents