A Hidden History of the Cuban Revolution: How the Working Class Shaped the Guerillas’ Victory by Stephen Cushion

Author:Stephen Cushion
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3
Tags: Non-Fiction, Revolution, Cuba, Politics, History
Publisher: Monthly Review Press
Published: 2016-02-21T13:00:00+00:00

• Long live the unity of the working class!

• Forward comrades, Unity and Struggle!58

The nationalism of the MR-26-7 is side by side with the PSP’s slogan of “¡Union y Lucha!” (Unity and Struggle!). Similarly, a leaflet from the San Miguel committee dated March 1958 is particularly interesting in that, on the one hand, it uses the PSP formula “por un gobierno representativo de amplia coalición democrática” (for a government representing a broad democratic coalition), and on the other hand, salutes the heroic guerrillas in the mountains using language reminiscent of the MR-26-7.59 We have no way of knowing the extent to which sections of the leadership of either the MR-26-7 and the PSP encouraged these local united fronts, but they coincided with the first negotiations between the two organizations, which began when the veteran communist sugar worker Ursinio Rojas arrived in the Sierra Maestra for discussions with Fidel Castro, sometime in October 1957.60 Clearly, the leaders of the PSP now recognized the political importance of the MR-26-7 or were well aware that they were competing with them for influence in a working class that the communists had previously thought of as their private constituency.

Toward the end of 1957, the MR-26-7 sección obrera also came to be referred to as the Frente Obrero Nacional (FON).61 This name change was portrayed by the 26th July Movement as an opening out to other political tendencies, but at this stage it was little more than a rebranding exercise, albeit a successful one as the MR-26-7 grew in numbers and influence within organized labor. As a result, it came into greater contact with the PSP, which concretely posed the question of their practical relationship. An abstract call for “unity” is easy to make, but the practical application of the slogan is much more difficult. In December 1957 Vanguardia Obrera asked the question “¿Unidad con quiénes?” (Unity with whom?). This is only answered in the vaguest of terms, completely sidestepping the relationships with the communists. It seems likely that this ambiguity was deliberate to enable the July 26th Movement the maximum freedom to maneuver. Later in the same edition, another article calls upon all other revolutionary organizations to help build the FON from the base, as the organization that would have responsibility for launching a revolutionary general strike to overthrow the dictatorship.62 Thus we see that MR-26-7 clearly saw itself as the directing organization of the revolution and that other oppositionists had to accept their lead. “Unity” was to be on their terms. Such an approach was a practical possibility for those in a leadership position charged with producing editorial content for a national paper. However, those militants at the local level who had the task of implementing the party line found themselves having to take a more nuanced approach.

A long-established unofficial network of MR-26-7, Communist Party, and independent militants operated in Oriente Province, a good example being the way in which employees of the FFCC Consolidados railway network were able to coordinate their militant activities.63

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