The daily worker., 1926-02-26
Cuba Under United States Imperialism

crop would, never have been grown.
Nothing has been achieved in the
ace of the perennial voyage of pow
srty to Cuba, always coincident with
new purchases of land and with new
taxes and loans. On the last crop
there was a surplus of more than half
million tons, out of total crop of
| 100000 tons. And now Cuba, with
out having opened up new markets,
without having established a mini
mum price, without any security,
without her own refineries-launche
out, on the word of the president of
the republic, upon another crop, This
year, in order that next years crisis
may be still worse, the yield will be
upwards Of 100000 tons. @ esas
Unsupportable has become the con-
EDITION of oppression. of exploitation.
Moreover, there has been no such
thing as political responsibility. All
that count are money and good rela-
tions with Uncle Sam. The bour-
geoisie is the same the world over,
but in the Latin-American countries
its attitude is particularly odius.
The regime of exploitation out of
which these things arise is not diff.
cult to understand 1t is necessary to
wiring from the colony the greatest
possible amount of surplus value, and
in the most advantageous form. To
accomplish this, the colon0s are be-
fooled and the developing radical
unions of workers and peasants is
brutally repressed. In truth organ
ization of the peasants has. not been
possible to effect in Cuba; it has
sprung up momentarily in periods Of
extreme oppression but the govern
ment, faithful watchdog of it's imper-
ialist masters, has drowned it in blood
and deportations.
Workers Paid in Script.
Life in the sugar "centrals" or mills
or factories is insufferable. The ma
terial conditions of labor are of the
worst. There is no money wage,
workers are being paid in script that
can only be exchanged for merchan-
disc at the company stores, where
fantastic prices are charged. Socially,
the workers in the fields are treated in
about the same way as the animals.
He must be submissive and exagger-
atedly respectful in the face of all the
abuses of the bosses who are pleased
to humiliate him.
Tn a.
central" has not changed in so years.
In place of the old mill turned by
horses there is now magnificent ma
chine; instead of ten bags of sugar a
day, 1000. Only the worker remains
as before. Formerly he was called
slave, not Juan or Pedro, but life for
him continues on the same level Of
misery.
Yankee methods" of exploitation
have been extended to all the cen
trails. se.s hftlt+
While sugar is the one big indus
try on which Cuban prosperity de-
pends, it is not the only one on which
the American capitalists have gotten
their hands. The United Fruit COM
pany dominates great part of the
export of pineapples and other fruits.
In the city of Banes-"yellow Banes,"
as it is now called-the company has a
field of it's own Trespassing is not
permitted without permission of the
special police maintained to keep or
der" in the American possessions. All
products going into the old city of
Havana enter by way of the Yankee
owned Banes railroad Cuba will soon
be an enormous city of Banes.
Dare Not Offend crowder.
Wherever they go the Yankee cap
italists leave their trail They believe,
as in China, that it is sufficient for the
native If he produces for them. Their
rights are the only ones respected and
respectable, their agents are the only
ones that may not be removed. and
their desires must be fulfilled to the
raising of an eyebrow, like Father
Jupiter. The father Jupiter of the
Cubans is called Crowder One must
be persona grata" to Crowder. Woe
to the government Official party or in
dividual who raises the wrath of his
excellency, the ambassador of the
United States 3eee sl,
Aside from the ones mentioned,
Cubas products develop very slowly,
If they develop at all. We have no
markets. The Americans do not want