Cuba's Unions Come Full Circle
WHITTEMORE, E. P.
Cuba's Unions Come Full Circle By ?. ? Whittemore The Cuban labor movement has come full circle. The Confederation of Cuban Workers (CTC), established 23 years ago under a coalition...
...But his resignation has never been accepted, apparently because of his outstanding Revolutionary credentials and great national prominence...
...Those who fought the old dictator are either dead, in prison or in exile— except, of course, for those who became "melons...
...They also accepted Pena's suggestion that Cuban workers voluntarily give up benefits accumulated during four decades of union activity: profit-sharing, year-end bonuses, nine days of sick leave, and no more than an eighthour day...
...That month, too, Salvador resigned as Secretary General in protest...
...And it was Pena who initiated some important changes in Cuban labor both before and during the 11th Congress...
...From the time Salvador resigned in March 1960 until its 11th Congress in November, the CTC's official spokesman was Jésus Soto, a "melon" who was one of Salvador's deputies...
...Lázaro Peña, now known as the "Founder of the CTC"—he founded it with Batista's assistance —emerged from behind the scenes, took charge of the Congress proceedings and was elected Secretary General...
...He replaced him with former Defense Minister Augusto Martinez, a man with no experience in labor affairs who was a close associate of Raul's...
...For the first two years of Batista's second regime, he was a member of the "Triple A," the only clandestine organization then operating against the dictator...
...By March 1960, the elected leaders of 20 labor federations had been removed and replaced by Communists...
...For the next six years he divided his time between a villa in Mexico and trips to Europe to attend Communist meetings...
...In June Salvador went underground once more...
...A systematic liquidation of the 26th of July labor leaders was now possible...
...Article III of the law states: "All workers have the right to assemble in order to effect all kinds of Revolutionary propaganda without detriment to production or to the general administration of the Government...
...In an emotional radio speech, he accused the Communists of betraying the workers, broke with the party and resigned from municipal office...
...You don't see here those who shouted in the halls: 'melons...
...He has still not been charged or tried...
...The strike failed, partly because the Communists, with whom Salvador refused to collaborate, opposed it and persuaded many unions not to join...
...he acquiesced...
...melons!' They are not here, but the "melons' are indeed with you...
...Indeed, in the four days it lasted the 10th Congress effectively silenced the labor wing of the 26th of July Movement...
...Pena, whose praise for the dictator—"messenger of prosperity"—became one of the coalition's slogans, was elected to the Chamber of Deputies...
...Two years before, an equal number of "melons" and 26th of July leaders had been chosen...
...In 1939, at the age of 16, he went to work in an American-owned sugar mill, quickly became a labor organizer and joined the Youth Section of the Communist party...
...In April of the following year, he directed a large part of the general strike which was intended to strengthen urban resistance against Batista...
...In August 1961, trade unions were legally abolished and replaced by union "sections" controlled by the Ministry of Labor...
...In 1953, Pena left the country...
...At the Confederation's 10th Congress in November of that year, the first to be held after Batista's overthrow, he was the acknowledged leader of 3,000 delegates from the 26th of July Movement...
...Pena then proposed that the workers should not receive interest or bonds for the 4 per cent of their salaries they give to the Government for industrialization...
...But in fact Pena ran the Confederation during the eightmonth period...
...Martinez recommended that the word Confederation in the CTC's name be changed to Central, since labor federations no longer existed...
...The Confederation of Cuban Workers (CTC), established 23 years ago under a coalition agreement between Fulgencio Batista and the Communist party, is again completely controlled by the men who worked with the dictator...
...No mention was made of David Salvador, former head of the 26th of July Movement's Labor Section and the CTC, who has been held by Castro for the past 15 months in Havana's La Cabana fortress...
...And we will keep on being 'melons'—as green as was, is and will be the uniform of the rebel army as red as the international workers' movement...
...Within a few years, Pena was dismissed as Secretary General and then disappeared from public view...
...In effect, however, since Fidel supported the Communists thereafter, the 26 of July leaders were defeated...
...He was imprisoned and tortured...
...Salvador had fought seven years in the underground and passionately believed in his leader...
...Just before the Congress Fidel sacked his Socialist Minister of Labor, Manuel Fernández, who had been under attack by the Communists...
...For the first time since the Batista-Communist coalition, the CTC was open to control by a small Communist minority...
...this time, there was almost an equal number of "melons" and old-time Communists, Pena the most prominent among them...
...With Batista's aid, the Communists took charge of the first Congress of the CTC and made Peña, an experienced party worker, its Secretary General...
...Paralleling Pena's descent was the rise of Salvador, a radical labor leader who was one of the first Fidelistas...
...When the Executive Board was finally chosen, it included three "melons" and three 26th of July leaders—equal representation for the small Communist minority...
...The careers of these two men present an interesting contrast: Pena first rose to prominence in 1939, shortly after the Communists agreed to support Bastista in exchange for legalization of the party and control of the labor movement...
...Finally, the Congress elected new CTC officers...
...You don't see here," he reminded the delegates, "the impudent ones who shouted '26...
...At the Congress itself, both Castros personally intervened in favor of the "melons" and against the men who had fought with them to oust Batista...
...26!' to wreck the unity of the working class...
...The issue was whether to include three Communists among the 13 nominees for the CTC's new Executive Board...
...At the 11th Congress, the two main speakers were Martinez, the Minister of Labor, and Pena, who was still without an elected office...
...Salvador was released from prison soon after the Revolution triumphed on January 1, 1959, and was immediately named Secretary General of the CTC...
...Martinez began by ridiculing the previous Congress and the "lackeys of Yankee imperialism" who had taken part in it...
...First, Fidel took Salvador aside and demanded a "unity" slate for the "good of the Revolution...
...Subsequently, the Communists tried unsuccessfully to assassinate him...
...The delegates agreed...
...In October 1958, while preparing to leave for a labor congress in the Sierra Maestra, Salvador was arrested by Batista's police...
...Backed by the Communists, Batista was elected President the following year...
...In 1946, Salvador was elected Councilman from Ciego de Avila, his native town, on the Communist ticket...
...He formed the Revolutionary Movement of the 30th of November, which took its name from the first of Fidel's betrayals: the day in 1956 when Castro failed to land in Cuba as he had promised...
...Immediately following the Congress the purge began...
...they were responsive to Raul Castro...
...Since March 1960, there has been complete official silence about Salvador...
...He did not return to Cuba until late January 1959, three weeks after the Revolution overthrew Batista...
...On July 26, 1953, when Castro made his armed attack on the Moncada Barracks, Salvador established contact with the Fidelistas, and when Fidel formed the 26th of July Movement in Mexico two years later, he was one of a small group who launched it in Cuba...
...By 1957 Salvador was head of the Movement's Labor Section...
...In 1952, shortly after Batista regained power through a coup, Salvador went underground...
...Next, Fidel made his plea for "unity" directly to the Congress...
...He never took office, however...
...To allow the Government to take the money in a lump sum would simplify "bookkeeping...
...Finally in November 1960, a little more than two years after he had been arrested by Batista, Salvador was arrested by Castro...
...The remaining 265 delegates were known as "melons" (green outside, red inside...
...For him, it was the beginning of the end...
...Thus, those who collaborated with the old dictator are back in power with the new dictator...
...Although the evolution of this development has been obscured by Fidel Castro's dramatic admission of long-time Marxist-Leninist convictions, and by the recent attempts of the Organization of American States to censure and isolate his regime, Cuban trade unions virtually surrendered their autonomy at the CTC's 11th Congress last November...
...Under a new Union Organization Law, all workers were ordered to join a union "section...
...Also present, advising Raul, was Lázaro Pena...
...Unlike Fidel and Raul Castro, Salvador came from a working-class family...
...E. P. Whittemore, a freelancer who is a close observer of Cuban affairs, is also the author of The Press in Japan Today: A Case Study...
...He was returned to the Chamber in 1944, but by then Batista was out of power and, as a result, the Communists were losing control of the CTC...
...In fact, he thought the total amount the Government withholds from salaries— 17 per cent for civil servants and 12 per cent for all others—should no longer be considered part of wages at all...
...The delegates agreed...
Vol. 45 • February 1962 • No. 3
