Anarchism in Cuba
Anarchism as a social movement in Cuba held great influence with the working classes during the 19th and early 20th century.
The movement was particularly strong following the abolition of slavery in 1886, until it was repressed first in 1925 by President Gerardo Machado,[1] and more thoroughly by Fidel Castro's Marxist–Leninist government following the Cuban Revolution in the late 1950s.
[4] After being introduced to the ideas of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon by José de Jesus Márquez, Saturnino Martínez (an Asturian immigrant to Cuba) founded the periodical La Aurora in 1865.
[7] During the 1880s, and up through the early 1890s, Cuban anarchists favored an anarcho-collectivist method of organizing and action similar to that of Spain's Federación de Trabajadores de la Región Española (Workers' Federation of the Spanish Region, FTRE), following an "each to his contribution" line, as opposed to the "each to his need" line of the anarcho-communists.
The Centro had a strict policy accepting all Cubans, "regardless of their social position, political tendency, and differences of color.
Roig San Martín wrote for El Boletín del Gremio de Obreros, and for the first explicitly anarchist periodical in Cuba, El Obrero, which was founded in 1883 by republican-democrats but quickly turned into a mouthpiece for anarchists when Roig San Martín took over as editor.
[10] Founded in 1885, the Círculo de Trabajadores organization concentrated on educational and cultural activities, hosting a secular school for 500 poor students and meetings for workers' groups.
The next year, leaders of the Círculo (with Enrique Creci at the head) formed an aid committee to raise funds for the legal troubles of eight Chicago anarchists who had been charged with murder in connection with the Haymarket affair.
[17] The following year, Roig San Martín died at age 46, just days after his release from jail by the Spanish colonial government; his funeral was reportedly attended by 10,000 mourners.
[20] Later that year, 11 anarchists were tried for the murder of Menéndez Areces, a director of the moderate Uníon Obrera (Workers' Union).
Though all 11 were found innocent, Captain-General Camilo García de Polavieja used the situation as pretext for shutting down production of El Productor, and repression of anarchists in general.
Anarchists placed bombs that blew up bridges and gas pipelines, and contributed to the failed separatist attempt to assassinate the colonial head Captain General Valeriano Weyler in 1896.
This led to the government further repressing of anarchists, closing the Sociedad General de Trabajadores (which grew out of the Círculo), mass deportations of activists, and even the forbidding of the lectura in the workplace.
They cited conditions that were perpetuated by the new government, like suppression of labor movements, US occupations, and dissatisfaction with the school systems.
Around this time, anarchist organizer Errico Malatesta visited Cuba, giving speeches, and interviews to several periodicals, but was soon barred from further speaking engagements by civil governor Emilio Nuñez.
"[27] Anarchists claimed that students enrolled in such schooling would become "cannon fodder" for a conflict of Liberal and Conservative Party leaders in 1906, which caused the US to intervene and occupy Cuba through 1909.
[31] After García Menocal seized control of the Cuban government in 1917, several general strikes were met with violence from the state.
The following year, Menocal lost control of the government to Alfredo Zayas y Alfonso, leading to a proliferation of anarchist activity.
[34] By this time, many anarchists (including Alfredo López and Carlos Baliño) had become swept up in the excitement about the Russian Revolution, and had become party to more authoritarian forms of organizing.
Also, an official propaganda organ for the ALC was chosen, Solideridad Gastronómica, which was published monthly up until it was shut down by the Castro government in December 1960.
A third congress was held in 1950, with a heavy focus on keeping the labor movement apolitical and free of interference from politicians and bureaucrats.
[45] In January 1960, the ALC convened an assembly, calling for support of the Cuban Revolution, while also declaring opposition to totalitarianism and dictatorships.
[46] In the summer of that year, the German anarchist Augustin Souchy was invited by the Castro government to survey the agrarian sector.
He was not impressed with what he found, and declared in his pamphlet Testimonios sobre la Revolución Cubana that the system was too close to the Soviet model.
According to Cuban anarchist Casto Moscú, "An infinity of manifestos were written denouncing the false postulates of the Castro revolution and calling the populace to oppose it... plans were put into effect to sabotage the basic things sustaining the state.
The anarcho-pacifist periodical Liberation printed pro-Castro articles, leading to a protest at their offices by the MLCE and Libertarian League.
[55] Despite the denunciations from the anarchist organizations and periodicals around the world, opinion began to change in 1976, when Sam Dolgoff published his book The Cuban Revolution: A Critical Perspective.
As well, in 1979, the MLCE began publishing a new magazine titled Guángara Libertaria, reprinting Alfredo Gómez' article The Cuban Anarchists, or the Bad Conscience of Anarchism.
[58] In 2015, they promoted the foundation of the Anarchist Federation of Central America and the Caribbean, which was constituted in Santiago de los Caballeros, with delegates from the Dominican Republic, Cuba, United States, Bonaire, El Salvador and Puerto Rico.
