When discussing the labor movement and the struggles of the unions in Cuba, it is essential to mention Lázaro Peña González, that fighter who was born into a humble Havana home in 1911 and dedicated his life to the Communist Party and to organizing workers to confront injustices.
This May 29th marks the 110th anniversary of Lázaro's birth in the Havana neighborhood of Los Sitios. He was the son of a carpenter and occasional bricklayer and a tobacco stripper, trades his father had to learn almost as a child after being orphaned and forced to leave school at just 10 years old.
"Poor and Black, at the suffering base of a pyramid of oppression," as the Cuban intellectual Juan Marinello aptly described Lázaro, he aspired to be a violinist in his youth, but was forced to earn a living to help his family. From childhood, he experienced the harsh life of a Cuban worker, though he never abandoned his musical vocation and developed a love of reading that allowed him to acquire a broad cultural profile through self-study.
In his 63 years of life, this communist leader, who joined the party at the age of 18 in 1929, was imprisoned several times for his activism against the tyranny of Gerardo Machado. In 1934, at the age of 23, he was elected to the Central Committee of the Communist Party, general secretary of the Tobacco Workers' Union, and member of the Executive Committee of the National Confederation of Cuban Workers (CNOC), which he went on to lead in 1935.
The CNOC, under the guidance of the Communist Party, carried out two major strikes: the first in August 1933, which brought down the despotic government of General Gerardo Machado, and the second in March 1935, which was brutally repressed by the government of Carlos Mendieta and the head of the Army, Fulgencio Batista. The lack of unity among the revolutionary forces led to the strike's defeat. The unions were occupied militarily, the University and workplaces were militarized, the CNOC was dismantled, and the few unions that managed to operate semi-legally received death threats or threats of imprisonment. Lázaro Peña suffered imprisonment and torture.
Lázaro Peña would become a key figure in unifying the labor movement, which he would reorganize and expand within the ranks of the Cuban proletariat. In 1938, he was a key figure in the founding of the Confederation of Latin American Workers (CTAL), headquartered in Mexico, and all these efforts bore fruit in 1939 with the celebration of the Constituent Congress of the Confederation of Cuban Workers (CTC).
The most significant agreement of this Congress in 1939 was to declare the dissolution of the CNOC, which had already admirably fulfilled its role in leading the labor movement to a higher level of organization and clarity, along with demanding an end to all forms of persecution and police surveillance of union activities. This important gathering of workers also advocated for a Constituent Assembly to provide Cuba with a new Magna Carta, which would ultimately become the 1940 Constitution, and expressed solidarity with the Spanish people in their struggle against fascism. On January 28, 1939, the highest leadership of the trade union movement was established under the leadership of the worker Lázaro Peña, at only 28 years old, due to his outstanding career as a popular leader, honesty and courage.
In 1940, Peña was a delegate to the 1940 Constituent Assembly and a founding member of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), where he served as secretary and vice-president of its Executive Committee in 1953. Intervened in the 1940s by the Cuban oligarchic governments, the CTC became an instrument for subjugating the working class to capital, although its main leaders, from the Communist Party, continued fighting for workers' rights under very difficult conditions. From 1947 onward, they forced the division of the labor movement and imposed Eusebio Mujal and his clique in the leadership of the CTC. The Batista dictatorship did not allow Peña to enter the country upon his return from the Third WFTU Congress in Vienna in October 1953, a prohibition that lasted until the fall of the regime.
After the revolutionary triumph, Peña rejoined the labor movement as a private, working to rebuild it. In 1961, at the 11th Congress of the Central Organization of Cuban Workers (CTC), an organization that had restored the unity and prestige of the organized labor movement, he rejoined its leadership as general secretary, a position he held until 1966. In 1965, he was elected to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), a position he held until his death.
During this period, he played a prominent role in the international labor movement, helping to create the Confederation of Latin American Workers (CTAL) and the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU). For his outstanding merits and organizational skills, he was appointed, in early 1973, head of the Department of Mass Organizations within the PCC's Central Committee.
Despite his illness, he dedicated himself to preparing for the historic 13th Congress of the CTC (Central Organization of Cuban Workers). He was central to that momentous gathering, directly participating in drafting the Theses on a variety of complex political, economic, social, labor, and union issues, which were then debated with all the workers. He worked until his last breath, passing away on March 11, 1974.
Regarding his dedication and commitment even in the final moments of his life, Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz said at the labor leader's funeral: "It was useless to beg him to moderate his efforts and take care of his health. This was the only thing in which this modest, docile, and disciplined militant disregarded the pleas of his comrades and the exhortations of his Party (...) We have not come here to bury a dead man, we have come to plant a seed."