Castro and the Cuban Anarchists.

[ComradeMan]

As someone with Anarchist leanings I have an awkward "relationship" with Cuba and the Cuban Revolution. I'm sure it's obvious why...

Would someone be able to answer the following for me please:-

What would be/are the justifications from a Castrist point of view for turning against the Cuban anarchist movement? I would like to know the why from the other side. Always seems like Anarchists and Communists get on for a while, do well, then fall out and it all goes to pieces. Orwell- Homage to Catalonia.

So what would be/are the reasons that could be seen as a valid explanation for Castro's opposition?

[proudcomrade]

So what would be/are the reasons that could be seen as a valid explanation for Castro's opposition?

They challenge his absolute stranglehold on what should be ruled by the proletariat.

[ComradeMan]

How would he justify it though? What were the reasons of the Cuban Communist Party?

[proudcomrade]

The regime is big on jailing people for "social dangerousness" and "pre-delective" political dissent. They denounce quite a bit of internal dissent as being counterrevolutionary, whether or not it truly is.

[manic expression]

So what would be/are the reasons that could be seen as a valid explanation for Castro's opposition?

I'll answer this generally because I don't know that much about the specific events. The July 26 Movement's opposition to the anarchists should not be seen as pure sectarianism. After all, the PCC was formed out of many groups from different traditions.

We have to remember that imperialism immediately tried to destroy the Cuban Revolution, and so forces within Cuba that opposed the building of socialism were a distinct liability to what the workers had already created. With the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and the subsequent October Crisis the next year, the situation in Cuba had little room for overt opponents of the revolutionary government.

Those are some general concerns that apply to the early years of the Cuban Revolution. However, it would help to know the specifics: how strong the Cuban anarchists were, their activities from 1953-1959, their line during the first years of the Cuban government, etc. I'd appreciate it if another poster could provide some basic info on this.

[ComradeMan]

I'll answer this generally because I don't know that much about the specific events. The July 26 Movement's opposition to the anarchists should not be seen as pure sectarianism. After all, the PCC was formed out of many groups from different traditions.

We have to remember that imperialism immediately tried to destroy the Cuban Revolution, and so forces within Cuba that opposed the building of socialism were a distinct liability to what the workers had already created. With the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and the subsequent October Crisis the next year, the situation in Cuba had little room for overt opponents of the revolutionary government.

Those are some general concerns that apply to the early years of the Cuban Revolution. However, it would help to know the specifics: how strong the Cuban anarchists were, their activities from 1953-1959, their line during the first years of the Cuban government, etc. I'd appreciate it if another poster could provide some basic info on this.


Good answer.... it would be interesting to delve into the reasons more, I can't seem to find any that handle the subject from an objective position (if such a thing exists).

My own gut feeling is that Fidel new that US-led capitalism would try and crush the Cuban state and that the anarchists would cause divisions, and a house divided cannot stand. If any Cubans here or others would have facts/statements etc it would be very interesting.

[Devrim]

I haven't read it so I can't comment on its contents at all, but Dolgoff's book on Cuba has details about anarchists in Cuba as well as primary sources:
http://www.anarchyisorder.org/CD%234/Lay-outed%20texts/PDF-versions/Dolgoff,%20Sam%20-%20The%20Cuban%20revolution,%20A%20critical%20pers pective.pdf

Devrim

[Absolut]

I haven't read it so I can't comment on its contents at all, but Dolgoff's book on Cuba has details about anarchists in Cuba as well as primary sources:
http://www.anarchyisorder.org/CD%234/Lay-outed%20texts/PDF-versions/Dolgoff,%20Sam%20-%20The%20Cuban%20revolution,%20A%20critical%20pers pective.pdf

Devrim

I thought it was a pretty good book. Theres eye-witness accounts from Augustin Souchy and some other people who I havent heard of. They travelled around the country and described, amongst other things, the militarisation of the population. One example that I think Souchy brought up was when he visited an elementary school, and I quote:

"I visited an elementary school. The children march and shout: "Una, Dos, Tres, Cuatro, Fi-Del-Castro!" The proud principal exclaims: "Look! Tomorrows soldiers for the cause of the revolution! And this new, fine school was once an old army barrack." Little does he realise that not much has changed, the old spirit of militarism still prospers."

The book also goes through the anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist movement from its creation, in the latter part of the 19th century to the 1980's or so, when the book was published. I think it gives a pretty good account of the anarchist activities there.


My own gut feeling is that Fidel new that US-led capitalism would try and crush the Cuban state and that the anarchists would cause divisions, and a house divided cannot stand. If any Cubans here or others would have facts/statements etc it would be very interesting.

To my knowledge, there really wasnt much of an anarchist movement left to crush. They had been fighting dictators ever since Cuba gained its independence and were pretty much exhausted. However, theres accounts of Fidel and the State crushing volountary working-class organisations, such as worker run cooperatives, only to replace them with state-run ones. I dont know if there actually was anarchists or anarcho-syndicalists that organised these, Im sure that they did in some cases, but Im not sure how big their influence was on these endevours.

[ComradeMan]

Looks like we have a clash of visions, between statists and non-statists...

I've often thought this, and it is an old addage but revolutionaries do not always make good post-revolutionaries...

[syndicat]

The Cuban revolution was not based on the self-activity and organization of the working class. This is shown by the fate of radicals within the various unions that supported the revolution initially. The anarchists were the leading voice within the havana food workers union. they were anarcho-syndicalists. The transport workers union in havana had trotskyist leadership. And then there was the important Revolutionary Sugar Workers Union, which supported the general strike that brought down Batista. The leading figure in that union was David Santiago.

After the overthrow of Batista, the Cuban labor federation was initially democratized and reorganized, and Santiago was elected president. He was part of the "humanist" tendency who were initially dominant politically in the rebuilt Cuban labor federation. but the Fidelistas insisted on imposing people from the discredited Communist Party into leadership of the federation. Because of Santiago's opposition to manipulation of the labor movement, he was eventually sent to prison. The trotskyists in the havana transport union were also imprisoned. And the anarchists of the food workers union fled the country, in order to avoid prison.

Some of this story is told in Victor Alba's history of the labor movement of Latin America.