Anarchism in Cuba
Encyclopedia
Anarchism
as a social movement in Cuba
held great influence with the working class
es 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
, and finally by Fidel Castro's
Marxist government following the Cuban revolution
in the late 1950s. Cuban anarchism mainly took the form of Bakuninist
anarcho-collectivism and, later, anarcho-syndicalism
. The Latin American labor and by extension the Cuban labor movement itself was at first more influenced by anarchism than Marxism.
, consisting of a Spanish creole
ruling class
of tobacco, sugar, and coffee plantation owners, a middle class
of black and Spanish plantation workers, and an underclass
of black slaves
. The upper echelons of society were also deeply divided between the creoles and Spaniards (known as peninsulares), with the Spaniards benefiting greatly from the colonial regime. Cuba was a colony
of Spain, although there were movements for independence, integration into the U.S., and integration with Spain. The roots of anarchism
were first seen in 1857, when a Proudhonian
mutualist
society was founded. 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. Directed at tobacco workers, it included the earliest advocation of cooperative societies in Cuba. By the Ten Years War, the insurgents against Spain included expatriates from the Paris Commune
, and others influenced by Proudhon, including Salvador Cisneros Betancourt and Vicente García
.
operating in Barcelona
by importing anarchist pamphlets and newspapers. At the same time, many Spanish anarchists emigrated to Cuba, and it became very common for workers to read anarchist literature aloud in the tobacco factories, thereby greatly helping the dissemination of anarchist ideas amongst the workers. 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.
Enrique Roig San Martín founded the Centro de Instrucción y Recreo de Santiago de Las Vegas in 1882, to advocate the organization of labor and distribute literature from anarcho-collectivists in Spain. The Centro had a strict policy accepting all Cubans, "regardless of their social position, political tendency, and differences of color." The same year, the Junta Central de Artesanos (Central Group of Artisans) was founded following Roig San Martín's statement that "no guild or working class organization should be tied to the feet of capital". 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. He then founded El Productor in 1887. In addition to San Martín, El Productor had writers in the Cuban cities of Santiago de Las Vegas
and Guanabacoa, and the cities of Tampa
and Key West
in Florida
, and published reprinted articles from the French-language Le Revolté and Barcelona's La Acracia.
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
. Within a month and a half, the committee had raised approximately US$1,500 for the cause. In addition, a few days prior to the anarchists executions, the Círculo organized a demonstration of 2,000 people in Havana to protest the state's decision to execute the Americans. The Círculo and El Productor were both fined - the paper for an editorial written by Roig San Martín about the executions, and the Círculo for displaying a painting that commemorated the execution. The colonial government also prohibited the demonstrations that would be held every year on anniversary of the execution.
The first explicitly anarchist organization, the Alianza Obrera (Workers' Alliance), was founded in 1887. This organization participated along with the Federacíon de Trabajadores de la Habana (Havana Workers' Federation) and El Productor in the first Congreso Obrero de Cuba (Cuban Workers' Congress), which took place on October 1, 1887. The congress was mostly attended by tobacco workers, though not exclusively. It issued a "dictum" encompassing six points: opposition to all vestiges of authority, unity among workers' organizations through a federative pact, complete freedom of action among all groups, mutual cooperation, solidarity among all groups,
and the prohibition within the federation of all political and religious doctrines.
Satunino Martínez looked disapprovingly on the outcome of the congress, favoring more reformist ideas of organizing. This led to a rivalry between him and Roig San Martín and the splitting of the unions into two camps.
Soon after the congress, tobacco workers initiated a series of strikes at three factories, one of which lasted through to the end of November. Later, in the summer of 1888, strikes by tobacco workers led to a lockout
by factory owners in more than 100 factories. The Círculo de Trabajadores organized a collection drive to support the locked out workers, going so far as to send representatives to Key West, Florida to solicit donations from American tobacco workers. By October, the lockout was ended by factory owners agreeing to meet with workers in negotiations. The outcome of this situation was so favorable to the Alianza Obrera that the union saw its membership jump from 3,000 to 5,000 in the subsequent six months, making it the most powerful union in Cuba. 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. Just a few months later, in response to a lockout/strike in the tobacco industry, the colonial head Manuel Salamanca y Negrete closed the manufacturer's union, the Alianza Obrera and the Círculo de Trabajadores, although the four schools maintained by the Círculo were allowed to remain open, and the Círculo as a whole was allowed to reopen the following year by the new administration.
The first May Day
demonstration in Cuba was held in 1890, and consisted of a march followed by a meeting addressed by 18 anarchist speakers. In the following days, strikes by workers in many industries led to the colonial government once again closing the Círculo de Trabajadores, only to rescind the decision when faced with a manifesto issued in protest by 2,300 workers. 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 Polavieja used the situation as pretext for shutting down production of El Productor, and repression of anarchists in general. In 1892, another labor congress was held in which it reconfirmed its anarcho-syndicalist principles and expressing solidarity with the women in the working class (a new idea for a predominantly male working class that felt competed against by women in the workplace), declaring, "It is an urgent necessity not to forget women, who are beginning to fill the workshops of several industries. They are driven by necessity and by bourgeois greed to compete with us. We cannot oppose it; let us help them." However, the outcome of this was government suppression of the movement by means of deportation, imprisonment, the suspension of the right to free assembly, and closing of organizations' headquarters
to quell organizing efforts.
During the war of independence from Spain, anarchists joined others in the labor movement in distributing propaganda to Spanish soldiers, urging them not to oppose the separatists, and to join the anarchist cause. A few years previously, anarchists had embraced the ideas espoused by Spanish anarchists of organizing not just in unions, but also forming anarchist groups to educate people and commit violent anti-state acts known as "propaganda of the deed
", which carried on into the war of independence. 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.
Following the Spanish-American War
, which gave Cuba its independence from Spain, many anarchists were dissatisfied with the conditions that persisted after independence. They cited conditions that were perpetuated by the new government, like suppression of labor movements, US occupations, and dissatisfaction with the school systems. By 1899, anarchist workers had reorganized themselves, under the Alianza de Trabajadores (Worker's Alliance). By September of this year, five of the groups organizers had been arrested, following a mason's strike which spread to all of the construction trade. 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. Around 1902-03, anarchists and other labor organizers began to attempt to organize the sugar industry, then the largest industry in Cuba. But owners responded quickly, and two workers were murdered, and the crimes never solved.
As well, anarchist activists focussed much of their energy towards preparing society for social revolution through education. Anarchists ran schools for children to run counter to the Catholic schools and public schools, believing that religious schools were anathema to their ideas of freedom, and that public schools were too often used to instill ideas of "patriotic nationalism" and discourage free thought in children. In issues of ¡Tierra!, a weekly anarchist newspaper (published from 1899 through 1915, putting out more than 600 issues), writers denounced the public school requirement to pay allegiance to the Cuban flag, and encouraged teaching children that the flag was a symbol of "closed mindedness and divisiveness." 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. Though anarchists had been running schools since that of the Círculo de Trabajadores, it wasn't until 1906 that the schools began to take on a less traditional flavor. In 1908, anarchists included a manifesto in issues of ¡Tierra! and La Voz del Dependiente, calling for the establishment of schools modeled after Francesc Ferrer's
Escuela Moderna
(Modern School).
seized control of the Cuban government in 1917, several general strikes were met with violence from the state. Several anarchist organizers were killed by the state, including Robustiano Fernández and Luis Díaz Blanco. However, anarchists responded in kind with their own violent acts. In time, a group of 77 that the government labeled an "anarcho-syndicalist mob" were deported to Spain. As well, anarchist publications were outlawed (¡Tierra! having been shut down in 1915), and the anarchist Centro Obrero (Worker's Center) was forced to close. Following the anarchist Congress of 1920 in Havana, several bombings took place, including that of the Teatro Nacional while Enrico Caruso was performing, earning 15 to 20 times the yearly salary of an average Cuban worker for the single performance. The following year, Menocal lost control of the government to Alfredo Zayas y Alfonso, leading to a proliferation of anarchist activity. The ¡Tierra! group began to publish books and pamphlets, and at least six other regular anarchist periodicals were publishing.
At this time, the anarcho-syndicalists were still at the head of the labor movement in Cuba. However, despite the maritime, railway, restaurant and tobacco industries being controlled by organized anarchists, it wasn't until 1925 that a major anarchist federation was successfully organized by workers. Similar to the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo
of Spain, non-anarchist members of the Confederación Nacional Obrera Cubana (National Cuban Workers Confederation), eventually formed the Communist Party of Cuba
in August 1925. 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. Many strikes occurred in the fall of 1925, and the government, once again under the leadership of Machado, was quick to suppress the labor movement. Several labor leaders were shot, and several hundred Spanish anarchists were deported in one month. Machado stated "You are right - I don't know what anarchism is, what socialism is, what communism is. For me they are all the same. All bad patriots." Alfredo López, then secretary-general of the CNOC, was arrested first in October 1925, and encouraged to join the government, followed by a second arrest in July 1926. He was "disappeared" at this point, only to have his body found in 1933, after the fall of the Machado government.
With López gone, control of the CNOC was now fought over by anarchists and Communists. By 1930-1, CNOC had been taken over by the Communists, with anarchists being turned over to the police, still under the control of Machado. Many of the Spanish anarchists involved decided to go back to Spain. Following the new government's passage of a law dictating that at least half of an employer's employees be Cuban-born, a large number of Cuba's Spanish-born anarchists were forced by economic necessity to return to Spain, which greatly diminished the clout of the anarchist movement in Cuba. However, soon the Juventud Libertaria (Libertarian Youth) was founded by a younger generation of anarchists, and by 1936, after the start of the Spanish Civil War
, Cuban anarchists had founded the Solidaridad Internacional Antifascista (SIA), to help send money and arms to the CNT and FAI
. Many Cuban-born anarchists went to Spain to join the fight, alongside many Spanish-born anarchists exiled from Cuba.
With the rights guaranteed by the 1940 Constitution, anarchists could once again organize themselves with less risk of death or deportation. The SIA and the Federacíon de Grupos Anarquistas de Cuba dissolved themselves, their thousands of members forming the Asociacíon Libertaria de Cuba (Cuban Libertarian Association). The ALC held the Primer Congreso Nacional Libertario (First National Libertarian Congress) in 1944, electing a Secretary General, and an Organizational Secretary. This was followed in 1948 by a second congress, which featured the German anarchist Augustin Souchy
delivering the opening address. 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. By the mid-1950s, Fulgencio Batista
was once again in power after a successful coup d'état. Many anarchists joined guerrilla groups fighting the Batista government, including that of Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement
, which led to Batista's fleeing Cuba on the last day of 1958. A key figure of the 26th of July Movement was Camilo Cienfuegos
, an anarchist from a Spanish family who fled the civil war, who was chosen to fight by Che Guevara
"on account of the audacity of his blows, his tenacity, his intelligence, and unequalled devotion. Camilo practiced loyalty like a religion."
, and contained an editorial declaring that "dictatorships of the proletariat" were impossible, opining that no dictatorship could be of the proletariat, only dominate it.
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. Three days after Souchy departed Cuba, the entire print run was seized by the government, and destroyed. However, an Argentinian anarchist
publisher republished the pamphlet the following December. Around the same time, the ALC, alarmed at the movement of the Castro government towards a Marxist-Leninist form of rule, issued a declaration, under the name Grupo de Sindicalistas Libertarios to prevent reaction against the ALC's membership. The document declared opposition to the centralism, authoritarian tendencies, and militarism of the new government. After a denunciation of the document by the Secretary General of the Partido Comunista Cubano (PCC), anarchists failed in their search for a printer who would publish a reaction to the denunciation. The publication El Libertario published its last edition that summer.
Following these actions, many anarchists chose to go underground, resorting to "clandestine direct action
" as their only means of struggle. 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." After Manuel Gaona Sousa, one of the founders of the ALC and a former anarchist, issued a manifesto in support of the government, declaring all those opposing the government to be "traitors", Moscú and another anarchist, Manuel González were arrested in Havana. When they were freed, they both immediately went to the Mexican Embassy, where they were accepted. Both eventually made their way from Mexico to Miami, Florida
, where they would reunite with many of their Cuban associates.
Beginning in mid–1960, but greatly accelerating in the summer of 1961, great numbers of Cuban anarchists migrated to the United States. That summer, in New York, the Movimiento Libertario Cubano en el Exilio
(Cuban Anarchist Movement in Exile [MLCE]) was formed by some of these exiles, making contact with Spanish anarchists exiled following the Spanish Civil War
, who were also living in New York. They also made contact with Sam Dolgoff
and the New York-based Libertarian League
. Very quickly, donations to exiled Cuban anarchists were collected from around the world. However, donations soon dried up following the publishing of the Gaona manifesto, as many anarchists in other countries were swayed by the arguments in the document. In response to the widespread effect of the manifesto, the MLCE issued the Boletín de Información Libertaria with support from the Libertarian League, and the paper of the Federación Libertaria Argentina
(FLA). Among many others, the FLA printed an essay by Abelardo Iglesias titled Revolución y Contrarevolución which stated the differences the Cuban anarchists saw between Marxist and anarchist revolution: "To expropriate capitalist enterprises, handing them over to the workers and technicians, THIS IS REVOLUTION. But to convert them into state monopolies in which the only right of the producer is to obey, THIS IS COUNTER-REVOLUTION."
While Cubans exiled in the U.S. were trying to raise money to support anarchists imprisoned in Cuba, the MLCE was being denounced by anarchists in the U.S.
and other countries as puppets of the CIA, and "mere anti-communists". The anarcho-pacifist periodical Liberation printed pro-Castro articles, leading to a protest at their offices by the MLCE and Libertarian League. But in 1965, the MLCE sent Iglesias to Italy to present the case against Castro to the Federazione Anarchica Italiana
(FAIT). The FAIT was convinced, and published condemnations in Italian anarchist periodicals such as Umanità Nova
, and collected signatures to the condemnation from the Federación Libertaria Argentina
, the Federación Libertaria Mexicana, the Anarchist Federation of London, the Sveriges Arbetares Central-Organisation
, the French Anarchist Federation
, and the Movimiento Libertario Español.
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.http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu:16080/Anarchist_Archives/bright/dolgoff/cubanrevolution/toc.html 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. In 1980, the MLCE and Guángara Libertaria supported the mass evacuation of Cubans from Cuba
after many Cuban dissidents occupied the Peruvian embassy in Havana. Many of those who left Cuba at this time joined the editorial collective of Guángara. By 1985, the collective had correspondents around the world, including Mexico, Hawaii, Spain, and Venezuela. The magazine reached a press run of 5000 copies in 1987, making it the largest circulation anarchist periodical in the U.S. However, in 1992, the collective ceased publication of GL, though many of its members continued to publish writings. By 2008, the MLCE was structured as an affinity group
and coordinating network for Cuban anarchists of diverse tendencies.
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
as a social movement in Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
held great influence with the working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
es 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
Gerardo Machado
Gerardo Machado y Morales was President of Cuba and a general of the Cuban War of Independence...
, and finally by Fidel Castro's
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
Marxist government following the Cuban revolution
Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution was an armed revolt by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement against the regime of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista between 1953 and 1959. Batista was finally ousted on 1 January 1959, and was replaced by a revolutionary government led by Castro...
in the late 1950s. Cuban anarchism mainly took the form of Bakuninist
Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin was a well-known Russian revolutionary and theorist of collectivist anarchism. He has also often been called the father of anarchist theory in general. Bakunin grew up near Moscow, where he moved to study philosophy and began to read the French Encyclopedists,...
anarcho-collectivism and, later, anarcho-syndicalism
Anarcho-syndicalism
Anarcho-syndicalism is a branch of anarchism which focuses on the labour movement. The word syndicalism comes from the French word syndicat which means trade union , from the Latin word syndicus which in turn comes from the Greek word σύνδικος which means caretaker of an issue...
. The Latin American labor and by extension the Cuban labor movement itself was at first more influenced by anarchism than Marxism.
Colonial era
In the mid-19th century, Cuban society was highly stratifiedSocial stratification
In sociology the social stratification is a concept of class, involving the "classification of persons into groups based on shared socio-economic conditions ... a relational set of inequalities with economic, social, political and ideological dimensions."...
, consisting of a Spanish creole
Criollo (people)
The Criollo class ranked below that of the Iberian Peninsulares, the high-born permanent residence colonists born in Spain. But Criollos were higher status/rank than all other castes—people of mixed descent, Amerindians, and enslaved Africans...
ruling class
Ruling class
The term ruling class refers to the social class of a given society that decides upon and sets that society's political policy - assuming there is one such particular class in the given society....
of tobacco, sugar, and coffee plantation owners, a middle class
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
of black and Spanish plantation workers, and an underclass
Underclass
The term underclass refers to a segment of the population that occupies the lowest possible position in a class hierarchy, below the core body of the working class. The general idea that a class system includes a population under the working class has a long tradition in the social sciences...
of black slaves
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
. The upper echelons of society were also deeply divided between the creoles and Spaniards (known as peninsulares), with the Spaniards benefiting greatly from the colonial regime. Cuba was a colony
Colony
In politics and history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their inception....
of Spain, although there were movements for independence, integration into the U.S., and integration with Spain. The roots of anarchism
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
were first seen in 1857, when a Proudhonian
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon was a French politician, mutualist philosopher and socialist. He was a member of the French Parliament, and he was the first person to call himself an "anarchist". He is considered among the most influential theorists and organisers of anarchism...
mutualist
Mutualism (economic theory)
Mutualism is an anarchist school of thought that originates in the writings of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, who envisioned a society where each person might possess a means of production, either individually or collectively, with trade representing equivalent amounts of labor in the free market...
society was founded. After being introduced to the ideas of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon by José de Jesus Márquez, Saturnino Martínez (an Asturian
Asturias
The Principality of Asturias is an autonomous community of the Kingdom of Spain, coextensive with the former Kingdom of Asturias in the Middle Ages...
immigrant to Cuba) founded the periodical La Aurora in 1865. Directed at tobacco workers, it included the earliest advocation of cooperative societies in Cuba. By the Ten Years War, the insurgents against Spain included expatriates from the Paris Commune
Paris Commune
The Paris Commune was a government that briefly ruled Paris from March 18 to May 28, 1871. It existed before the split between anarchists and Marxists had taken place, and it is hailed by both groups as the first assumption of power by the working class during the Industrial Revolution...
, and others influenced by Proudhon, including Salvador Cisneros Betancourt and Vicente García
Vicente Garcia
Padre Vicente Garcia is a Filipino priest, hero and a defender of Dr. Jose P. Rizal.Padre Garcia was born in the village of Maugat, formerly a part of Rosario but now a barangay of Padre Garcia, on April 5, 1817 to parents Don Jose Garcia and Dona Andrea Teodoro. His family belonged to the upper...
.
Early development of the movement
By the 1880s, the first explicitly anarchist influence had manifested when José C. Campos established links between Cuba and Spanish anarchistsAnarchism in Spain
Anarchism has historically gained more support and influence in Spain than anywhere else, especially before Francisco Franco's victory in the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939....
operating in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
by importing anarchist pamphlets and newspapers. At the same time, many Spanish anarchists emigrated to Cuba, and it became very common for workers to read anarchist literature aloud in the tobacco factories, thereby greatly helping the dissemination of anarchist ideas amongst the workers. During the 1880s, and up through the early 1890s, Cuban anarchists favored an anarcho-collectivist
Collectivist anarchism
Collectivist anarchism is a revolutionary doctrine that advocates the abolition of both the state and private ownership of the means of production...
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.
Enrique Roig San Martín founded the Centro de Instrucción y Recreo de Santiago de Las Vegas in 1882, to advocate the organization of labor and distribute literature from anarcho-collectivists in Spain. The Centro had a strict policy accepting all Cubans, "regardless of their social position, political tendency, and differences of color." The same year, the Junta Central de Artesanos (Central Group of Artisans) was founded following Roig San Martín's statement that "no guild or working class organization should be tied to the feet of capital". 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. He then founded El Productor in 1887. In addition to San Martín, El Productor had writers in the Cuban cities of Santiago de Las Vegas
Santiago de Las Vegas
Santiago de las Vegas is a city in Havana Province, Cuba, located south of Havana. As of the year 2000, the population was 22,000. The Cuban government maintains an agricultural experiment station, as well as a meteorology center in the city.-History:...
and Guanabacoa, and the cities of Tampa
Tampa, Florida
Tampa is a city in the U.S. state of Florida. It serves as the county seat for Hillsborough County. Tampa is located on the west coast of Florida. The population of Tampa in 2010 was 335,709....
and Key West
Key West
Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida on the North American continent at the southernmost tip of the Florida Keys. Key West is home to the southernmost point in the Continental United States; the island is about from Cuba....
in Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, and published reprinted articles from the French-language Le Revolté and Barcelona's La Acracia.
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
Haymarket affair
The Haymarket affair was a demonstration and unrest that took place on Tuesday May 4, 1886, at the Haymarket Square in Chicago. It began as a rally in support of striking workers. An unknown person threw a dynamite bomb at police as they dispersed the public meeting...
. Within a month and a half, the committee had raised approximately US$1,500 for the cause. In addition, a few days prior to the anarchists executions, the Círculo organized a demonstration of 2,000 people in Havana to protest the state's decision to execute the Americans. The Círculo and El Productor were both fined - the paper for an editorial written by Roig San Martín about the executions, and the Círculo for displaying a painting that commemorated the execution. The colonial government also prohibited the demonstrations that would be held every year on anniversary of the execution.
Strengthening organization and action
and the prohibition within the federation of all political and religious doctrines.
Satunino Martínez looked disapprovingly on the outcome of the congress, favoring more reformist ideas of organizing. This led to a rivalry between him and Roig San Martín and the splitting of the unions into two camps.
Soon after the congress, tobacco workers initiated a series of strikes at three factories, one of which lasted through to the end of November. Later, in the summer of 1888, strikes by tobacco workers led to a lockout
Lockout (industry)
A lockout is a work stoppage in which an employer prevents employees from working. This is different from a strike, in which employees refuse to work.- Causes :...
by factory owners in more than 100 factories. The Círculo de Trabajadores organized a collection drive to support the locked out workers, going so far as to send representatives to Key West, Florida to solicit donations from American tobacco workers. By October, the lockout was ended by factory owners agreeing to meet with workers in negotiations. The outcome of this situation was so favorable to the Alianza Obrera that the union saw its membership jump from 3,000 to 5,000 in the subsequent six months, making it the most powerful union in Cuba. 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. Just a few months later, in response to a lockout/strike in the tobacco industry, the colonial head Manuel Salamanca y Negrete closed the manufacturer's union, the Alianza Obrera and the Círculo de Trabajadores, although the four schools maintained by the Círculo were allowed to remain open, and the Círculo as a whole was allowed to reopen the following year by the new administration.
Government response and the War of Independence
May Day
May Day on May 1 is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and usually a public holiday; it is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures....
demonstration in Cuba was held in 1890, and consisted of a march followed by a meeting addressed by 18 anarchist speakers. In the following days, strikes by workers in many industries led to the colonial government once again closing the Círculo de Trabajadores, only to rescind the decision when faced with a manifesto issued in protest by 2,300 workers. 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 Polavieja used the situation as pretext for shutting down production of El Productor, and repression of anarchists in general. In 1892, another labor congress was held in which it reconfirmed its anarcho-syndicalist principles and expressing solidarity with the women in the working class (a new idea for a predominantly male working class that felt competed against by women in the workplace), declaring, "It is an urgent necessity not to forget women, who are beginning to fill the workshops of several industries. They are driven by necessity and by bourgeois greed to compete with us. We cannot oppose it; let us help them." However, the outcome of this was government suppression of the movement by means of deportation, imprisonment, the suspension of the right to free assembly, and closing of organizations' headquarters
Headquarters
Headquarters denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the top of a corporation taking full responsibility managing all business activities...
to quell organizing efforts.
During the war of independence from Spain, anarchists joined others in the labor movement in distributing propaganda to Spanish soldiers, urging them not to oppose the separatists, and to join the anarchist cause. A few years previously, anarchists had embraced the ideas espoused by Spanish anarchists of organizing not just in unions, but also forming anarchist groups to educate people and commit violent anti-state acts known as "propaganda of the deed
Propaganda of the deed
Propaganda of the deed is a concept that refers to specific political actions meant to be exemplary to others...
", which carried on into the war of independence. 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
Valeriano Weyler
Don Valeriano Weyler y Nicolau, 1st Duke of Rubí and 1st Marquis of Tenerife Don Valeriano Weyler y Nicolau, 1st Duke of Rubí and 1st Marquis of Tenerife Don Valeriano Weyler y Nicolau, 1st Duke of Rubí and 1st Marquis of Tenerife (Seed in Ambos Camarines.-Philippines:In 1888, he was sent out as...
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.
The early 20th century
Spanish-American War
The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...
, which gave Cuba its independence from Spain, many anarchists were dissatisfied with the conditions that persisted after independence. They cited conditions that were perpetuated by the new government, like suppression of labor movements, US occupations, and dissatisfaction with the school systems. By 1899, anarchist workers had reorganized themselves, under the Alianza de Trabajadores (Worker's Alliance). By September of this year, five of the groups organizers had been arrested, following a mason's strike which spread to all of the construction trade. Around this time, anarchist organizer Errico Malatesta
Errico Malatesta
Errico Malatesta was an Italian anarcho-communist. He was an insurrectionary anarchist early in his life. He spent much of his life exiled from his homeland of Italy and in total spent more than ten years in prison. He wrote and edited a number of radical newspapers and was also a friend of...
visited Cuba, giving speeches, and interviews to several periodicals, but was soon barred from further speaking engagements by civil governor Emilio Nuñez. Around 1902-03, anarchists and other labor organizers began to attempt to organize the sugar industry, then the largest industry in Cuba. But owners responded quickly, and two workers were murdered, and the crimes never solved.
As well, anarchist activists focussed much of their energy towards preparing society for social revolution through education. Anarchists ran schools for children to run counter to the Catholic schools and public schools, believing that religious schools were anathema to their ideas of freedom, and that public schools were too often used to instill ideas of "patriotic nationalism" and discourage free thought in children. In issues of ¡Tierra!, a weekly anarchist newspaper (published from 1899 through 1915, putting out more than 600 issues), writers denounced the public school requirement to pay allegiance to the Cuban flag, and encouraged teaching children that the flag was a symbol of "closed mindedness and divisiveness." 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. Though anarchists had been running schools since that of the Círculo de Trabajadores, it wasn't until 1906 that the schools began to take on a less traditional flavor. In 1908, anarchists included a manifesto in issues of ¡Tierra! and La Voz del Dependiente, calling for the establishment of schools modeled after Francesc Ferrer's
Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia
Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia was a Spanish Catalan free-thinker and anarchist....
Escuela Moderna
Escuela Moderna
La Escuela Moderna was a progressive school that existed briefly at the start of the 20th century in Catalonia ....
(Modern School).
Repression and syndicalist activity
In 1911, following an unsuccessful strike by tobacco workers, bakers, and teamsters, all supported by ¡Tierra!, the new Governmental Secretary, Gerardo Machado had many Spanish anarchists deported and Cuban anarchists jailed. The repressive policies instituted at this time would continue for 20 years. After García MenocalMario García Menocal
Aurelio Mario García Menocal y Deop was President of Cuba, from 1913 to 1921...
seized control of the Cuban government in 1917, several general strikes were met with violence from the state. Several anarchist organizers were killed by the state, including Robustiano Fernández and Luis Díaz Blanco. However, anarchists responded in kind with their own violent acts. In time, a group of 77 that the government labeled an "anarcho-syndicalist mob" were deported to Spain. As well, anarchist publications were outlawed (¡Tierra! having been shut down in 1915), and the anarchist Centro Obrero (Worker's Center) was forced to close. Following the anarchist Congress of 1920 in Havana, several bombings took place, including that of the Teatro Nacional while Enrico Caruso was performing, earning 15 to 20 times the yearly salary of an average Cuban worker for the single performance. The following year, Menocal lost control of the government to Alfredo Zayas y Alfonso, leading to a proliferation of anarchist activity. The ¡Tierra! group began to publish books and pamphlets, and at least six other regular anarchist periodicals were publishing.
At this time, the anarcho-syndicalists were still at the head of the labor movement in Cuba. However, despite the maritime, railway, restaurant and tobacco industries being controlled by organized anarchists, it wasn't until 1925 that a major anarchist federation was successfully organized by workers. Similar to the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo
Confederación Nacional del Trabajo
The Confederación Nacional del Trabajo is a Spanish confederation of anarcho-syndicalist labor unions affiliated with the International Workers Association . When working with the latter group it is also known as CNT-AIT...
of Spain, non-anarchist members of the Confederación Nacional Obrera Cubana (National Cuban Workers Confederation), eventually formed the Communist Party of Cuba
Popular Socialist Party (Cuba)
The Popular Socialist Party was a communist party in Cuba. Originally called the Communist Party of Cuba , it was formed in the 1925 by a group including Blas Roca, Anibal Escalante, Fabio Grobart and Julio Antonio Mella, who acted as its leader until his assassination in Mexico in 1929. It was...
in August 1925. By this time, many anarchists (including Alfredo López
Alfredo Lopez
Alfredo Jose Miguel Lopez is an activist, writer, media producer, teacher and organizer in Brooklyn, New York. He is currently a well-known Internet activist and the Co-Director of May First/People Link, a progressive Internet users' organization and the Internet's oldest progressive...
and Carlos Baliño
Carlos Baliño
Carlos Baliño was born in the Cuban Villa of Guanajay.His early writings were poetry and prose. By 1869 his writings had gained notability for their anti-colonial and pro-independence inclinations; thus placing him at odds with the colonial authorities...
) had become swept up in the excitement about the Russian Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
, and had become party to more authoritarian forms of organizing. Many strikes occurred in the fall of 1925, and the government, once again under the leadership of Machado, was quick to suppress the labor movement. Several labor leaders were shot, and several hundred Spanish anarchists were deported in one month. Machado stated "You are right - I don't know what anarchism is, what socialism is, what communism is. For me they are all the same. All bad patriots." Alfredo López, then secretary-general of the CNOC, was arrested first in October 1925, and encouraged to join the government, followed by a second arrest in July 1926. He was "disappeared" at this point, only to have his body found in 1933, after the fall of the Machado government.
Reorganization after the departure of López and the Spaniards
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
, Cuban anarchists had founded the Solidaridad Internacional Antifascista (SIA), to help send money and arms to the CNT and FAI
Federación Anarquista Ibérica
The Federación Anarquista Ibérica is a Spanish organization of anarchist militants active within affinity groups inside the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo trade union. It is often abbreviated as CNT-FAI because of the close relationship between the two organizations...
. Many Cuban-born anarchists went to Spain to join the fight, alongside many Spanish-born anarchists exiled from Cuba.
With the rights guaranteed by the 1940 Constitution, anarchists could once again organize themselves with less risk of death or deportation. The SIA and the Federacíon de Grupos Anarquistas de Cuba dissolved themselves, their thousands of members forming the Asociacíon Libertaria de Cuba (Cuban Libertarian Association). The ALC held the Primer Congreso Nacional Libertario (First National Libertarian Congress) in 1944, electing a Secretary General, and an Organizational Secretary. This was followed in 1948 by a second congress, which featured the German anarchist Augustin Souchy
Augustin Souchy
Augustin Souchy was a German anarchist, antimilitarist, and journalist.- First World War :At the outbreak of the First World War he moved in Austria. From there he was deported to and forced to wear a sign around his neck that read "Beware: Anarchist!", which later became the title of his...
delivering the opening address. 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. By the mid-1950s, Fulgencio Batista
Fulgencio Batista
Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar was the United States-aligned Cuban President, dictator and military leader who served as the leader of Cuba from 1933 to 1944 and from 1952 to 1959, before being overthrown as a result of the Cuban Revolution....
was once again in power after a successful coup d'état. Many anarchists joined guerrilla groups fighting the Batista government, including that of Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement
26th of July Movement
The 26th of July Movement was the revolutionary organization planned and led by Fidel Castro that in 1959 overthrew the Fulgencio Batista government in Cuba...
, which led to Batista's fleeing Cuba on the last day of 1958. A key figure of the 26th of July Movement was Camilo Cienfuegos
Camilo Cienfuegos
Camilo Cienfuegos Gorriarán was a Cuban revolutionary born in Lawton, Havana. Raised in an anarchist family that had left Spain before the Spanish Civil War, he became a key figure of the Cuban Revolution, along with Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Juan Almeida Bosque, and Raúl Castro.-Political...
, an anarchist from a Spanish family who fled the civil war, who was chosen to fight by Che Guevara
Che Guevara
Ernesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist...
"on account of the audacity of his blows, his tenacity, his intelligence, and unequalled devotion. Camilo practiced loyalty like a religion."
1960–1961
In the first days after taking power, Castro expelled known anarcho-syndicalists from the Confederacíon de Trabajadores de Cuba (Cuban Workers Confederation, CTC). Because of this, and a general suspicion towards governments, the ALC's national council issued a manifesto denouncing the Castro government and its actions. The periodical Solidaridad Gastronómica also announced their displeasure with the government, saying that it was impossible for a government to be "revolutionary". In January 1960, the ALC convened an assembly, calling for support of the Cuban Revolution, while also declaring opposition to totalitarianism and dictatorships. By the end of the year, the group's journal (Solidaridad Gastronómica) would be shut down by the government. The final issue of the journal commemorated the death of Spanish anarchist Buenaventura DurrutiBuenaventura Durruti
José Buenaventura Durruti Dumange was a central figure of Spanish anarchism during the period leading up to and including the Spanish Civil War.-Early life:...
, and contained an editorial declaring that "dictatorships of the proletariat" were impossible, opining that no dictatorship could be of the proletariat, only dominate it.
In the summer of that year, the German anarchist Augustin Souchy
Augustin Souchy
Augustin Souchy was a German anarchist, antimilitarist, and journalist.- First World War :At the outbreak of the First World War he moved in Austria. From there he was deported to and forced to wear a sign around his neck that read "Beware: Anarchist!", which later became the title of his...
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. Three days after Souchy departed Cuba, the entire print run was seized by the government, and destroyed. However, an Argentinian anarchist
Anarchism in Argentina
The Argentinian anarchist movement was the strongest such movement in South America. It was strongest between 1890 and the start of a series of military governments in 1930. During this period, it was dominated by anarchist communists and anarcho-syndicalists...
publisher republished the pamphlet the following December. Around the same time, the ALC, alarmed at the movement of the Castro government towards a Marxist-Leninist form of rule, issued a declaration, under the name Grupo de Sindicalistas Libertarios to prevent reaction against the ALC's membership. The document declared opposition to the centralism, authoritarian tendencies, and militarism of the new government. After a denunciation of the document by the Secretary General of the Partido Comunista Cubano (PCC), anarchists failed in their search for a printer who would publish a reaction to the denunciation. The publication El Libertario published its last edition that summer.
Following these actions, many anarchists chose to go underground, resorting to "clandestine direct action
Direct action
Direct action is activity undertaken by individuals, groups, or governments to achieve political, economic, or social goals outside of normal social/political channels. This can include nonviolent and violent activities which target persons, groups, or property deemed offensive to the direct action...
" as their only means of struggle. 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." After Manuel Gaona Sousa, one of the founders of the ALC and a former anarchist, issued a manifesto in support of the government, declaring all those opposing the government to be "traitors", Moscú and another anarchist, Manuel González were arrested in Havana. When they were freed, they both immediately went to the Mexican Embassy, where they were accepted. Both eventually made their way from Mexico to Miami, Florida
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
, where they would reunite with many of their Cuban associates.
Exile
Cuban Libertarian Movement
Cuban Libertarian Movement may refer to different political organizations of Cuban exile that claim for them the label of libertarian, although with different meanings because a homonym of the spanish word libertario:...
(Cuban Anarchist Movement in Exile [MLCE]) was formed by some of these exiles, making contact with Spanish anarchists exiled following the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
, who were also living in New York. They also made contact with Sam Dolgoff
Sam Dolgoff
Sam Dolgoff was an American anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist.Dolgoff was born in the shtetl of Ostrovno in Vitebsk, Russia, moving as a child to New York City in 1905 or 1906, where he lived in the Bronx and in Manhattan's Lower East Side where he died...
and the New York-based Libertarian League
Libertarian League
Libertarian League was a name used by two American libertarian or social anarchist organisations during the twentieth century.The first Libertarian League was founded in Los Angeles in 1920. Although mainly anarchist its membership included people from many different political perspectives with the...
. Very quickly, donations to exiled Cuban anarchists were collected from around the world. However, donations soon dried up following the publishing of the Gaona manifesto, as many anarchists in other countries were swayed by the arguments in the document. In response to the widespread effect of the manifesto, the MLCE issued the Boletín de Información Libertaria with support from the Libertarian League, and the paper of the Federación Libertaria Argentina
Federación Libertaria Argentina
The Argentine Libertarian Federation is a libertarian communist federation which operates in Argentina, out of the City of Buenos Aires, San Pedro, La Pampa Province, and Rosario...
(FLA). Among many others, the FLA printed an essay by Abelardo Iglesias titled Revolución y Contrarevolución which stated the differences the Cuban anarchists saw between Marxist and anarchist revolution: "To expropriate capitalist enterprises, handing them over to the workers and technicians, THIS IS REVOLUTION. But to convert them into state monopolies in which the only right of the producer is to obey, THIS IS COUNTER-REVOLUTION."
While Cubans exiled in the U.S. were trying to raise money to support anarchists imprisoned in Cuba, the MLCE was being denounced by anarchists in the U.S.
Anarchism in the United States
Anarchism in the United States spans a wide range of anarchist philosophy, from individualist anarchism to anarchist communism and other less known forms. America has two main traditions, native and immigrant, with the native tradition being strongly individualist and the immigrant tradition being...
and other countries as puppets of the CIA, and "mere anti-communists". The anarcho-pacifist periodical Liberation printed pro-Castro articles, leading to a protest at their offices by the MLCE and Libertarian League. But in 1965, the MLCE sent Iglesias to Italy to present the case against Castro to the Federazione Anarchica Italiana
Federazione Anarchica Italiana
Federazione Anarchica Italiana is an Italian anarchist federation of autonomous anarchist groups all over Italy. The Italian Anarchist Federation was founded in 1945 in Carrara. It adopted an "Associative Pact" and the "Anarchist Program" of Errico Malatesta...
(FAIT). The FAIT was convinced, and published condemnations in Italian anarchist periodicals such as Umanità Nova
Umanità Nova
Umanità Nova is an Italian anarchist newspaper founded in 1920.It wa published daily until 1922, when it was shut down by the fascist regime. In some places its circulation exceeded that of the socialist paper Avanti!...
, and collected signatures to the condemnation from the Federación Libertaria Argentina
Federación Libertaria Argentina
The Argentine Libertarian Federation is a libertarian communist federation which operates in Argentina, out of the City of Buenos Aires, San Pedro, La Pampa Province, and Rosario...
, the Federación Libertaria Mexicana, the Anarchist Federation of London, the Sveriges Arbetares Central-Organisation
Central Organisation of the Workers of Sweden
Central Organisation of the Workers of Sweden is an anarcho-syndicalist trade union federation in Sweden. Unlike other Swedish unions, SAC organizes people from all occupations, including the unemployed, students, and the retired...
, the French Anarchist Federation
Anarchist Federation (France)
Fédération Anarchiste is an anarchist federation in France and Belgium. It is a member of the International of Anarchist Federations since its establishment in 1968.- History :...
, and the Movimiento Libertario Español.
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.http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu:16080/Anarchist_Archives/bright/dolgoff/cubanrevolution/toc.html 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. In 1980, the MLCE and Guángara Libertaria supported the mass evacuation of Cubans from Cuba
Mariel boatlift
The Mariel boatlift was a mass emigration of Cubans who departed from Cuba's Mariel Harbor for the United States between April 15 and October 31, 1980....
after many Cuban dissidents occupied the Peruvian embassy in Havana. Many of those who left Cuba at this time joined the editorial collective of Guángara. By 1985, the collective had correspondents around the world, including Mexico, Hawaii, Spain, and Venezuela. The magazine reached a press run of 5000 copies in 1987, making it the largest circulation anarchist periodical in the U.S. However, in 1992, the collective ceased publication of GL, though many of its members continued to publish writings. By 2008, the MLCE was structured as an affinity group
Affinity group
An Affinity group is usually a small group of activists who work together on direct action.Affinity groups are organized in a non-hierarchical manner, usually using consensus decision making, and are often made up of trusted friends...
and coordinating network for Cuban anarchists of diverse tendencies.
See also
- History of CubaHistory of CubaThe known history of Cuba, the largest of the Caribbean islands, predates Christopher Columbus' sighting of the island during his first voyage of discovery on 27 October 1492...
- Timeline of Cuban historyTimeline of Cuban history-Pre-colonial Cuba:* 5300 BC or earlier. Initial colonization of the Antilles by archaic hunter gatherers.-15th century:*1492 October 28 Christopher Columbus lands in east Cuba.*1494 Columbus returns to Cuba and sails along the south coast.-16th century:...
- Timeline of the Cuban RevolutionTimeline of the Cuban RevolutionThe Cuban Revolution was the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista’s regime by the 26th of July Movement and the establishment of a new Cuban government led by Fidel Castro in 1959...
External links
- Cuban Libertarian Movement (Movimiento Libertario Cubano)
- Cuban Anarchism: The History of a Movement by Frank Fernández
- Anarchism and Countercultural Politics in Early Twentieth-Century Cuba. By KIRWIN R. SHAFFER
- Women and Anarchism in Cuba by Kirwin Shaffer
- http://democraciaparticipativa.net/documentos/DeclPrinciplesCubanLibertarians.htm