A history of organized labor in Cuba

by Robert Jackson Alexander

Starting with the organization of tobacco workers and a few other groups in the last years of Spanish colonial rule, Robert J. Alexander traces the growth of the labor movement during the early decades of the republic, noting particularly the influence of three political tendencies: anarchosyndicalists, Marxists, and "independents." He examines the generally unfavorable attitudes of early republican governments to the labor movement, and he discusses the first central labor body, the CNOC, which was at first under anarchist influence, and soon captured by the Communists. The role of the CNOC vis-a-vis the Machado dictatorship, including the "deal" with Machado in 1933 is also discussed. Alexander then looks at the unions during the short Grau San Martine "nationalist" regime of 1933 and the near-destruction of organized labor by the Batista dictatorship of 1934-1937; the revival of the labor movement after the 1937 "deal" of the Communists with Batista and the establishment of the Conf