The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-09-11
The Terror in Cuba
Statement Of Protest Issued by the Communist Party Of Cuba


Statement Of Protest Issued by
THE new government Of General
Machado, already known for its
tyrannical declarations and its faith
full lackeyism to Wall Street, has en-
tered on new period of dictatorship.
To the imprisonments of last years,
which were obviously carried thru
with cynical disregard for court evil
dence and which only helped to hurt
the prestige of the government itself
as well as American imperialism, has
succeeded the systematic application
Of strong armed methods against the
workers and poor peasants. Workers
have been and are systematically in
Inundated. Strikes are brutally re-
pressed. All sorts of pressure is re-
sorted to to destroy the labor unions
and force the workers into accepting
leaders who have sold out to fascism.
Not content with this, the government
has resorted to undisguised murder
in the approved Matteotti style.
| NoMRADE vERANO, organizer Of
- the railroad workers, was shot in
the back by national guardsmen while
walking in the street in company with
his wife and children, a few days after
he had been discharged from prison,
where framed-up charge had placed
him. Comrade Quart was assassin
ated in the shadow of the prison. More
than fifty unfortunate peasants who
rebelled against the Machado sugar
trust system Of force wages, were
foully slaughtered by the soldiery.
Comrade Grant of the railroad work
ers, was murdered by a policeman
while about to report for work at the
railroad station. Among the long list
of other victims there stand out: Sal
vador Lopez, active trade union fight
er of Cienfeugos; Domingo, treasurer
of the railroad BROTHERHOOD; and AL
fredo Lopez, secretary Of the Havana
Federation of Labor, whose sensation
Il disappearance has shocked the en-
ire. labor movement. rht
I THIS Comrade Lopez stood out
i among the organized Cuban mass
es as one of the most indefatigable and
and courageous militants In the ranks
Of the working class. He was known
TO have left his home to go to the
headquarters of the Federation of La
Dor but he never arrived. Nothing
has been heard from him since.
The entire working class of Cuba,
even the railroad workers-among
whose leaders were included some of
the worst police spies Of the govern
ment-lies groaning under the iron
heel of an ominous dictatorship, with.
out possibility of defending itself with
the right of strike denied, without the
most elementary rights Of assembly
There is no such thing as freedom of
speech; nay, not even Freedom of
thought! Legal protection is a vulgar
farce. The mask of democracy has
been thrown aside and loud boasting
is being heard of the new dictatorship
by the tools of the "Mussolini of the
Carribean"-a Mussolini without tai
ents and one who is himself a tool.
THE entire country, not recovered
- yet from the series Of massacres,
illegal detentions and kidnappings,
fears to raise its voice in protest. The
mercenary press, half of it sold and
half Of it gagged, remains silent. Pub
lie opinion is reduced to whispered
criticism in family circles. The work
ing class still struggling to be born,
and without revolutionary traditions
or education, appears as one defense
less.
Almost as we write, four more work
ers have been wrenched from their
hearthstones by the tyrant Machado
and his assistant executioner, the
Cuban Stolipin, Zayas Basan. Habeas
corpus has been denied them. They
are to be railroaded to long terms in
prison or perhaps TO exile.
A mantle Of terror and crime covers
the whole country. The phrase with
which the secretary of the interior
closed his last interview with the un-
fortunate Alfredo Lopez, repeats it.
self like a credo of death:
For foreigners deportation, for
cubans, DEATH" o.
The working class OF Cuba asks
support and solidarity from It's COM
rades Of all other countries.
Down with the InperIatIst-controlIed
tyrannyl
Central Committee Of the comnu.
mist Party Of Cuban.