Having spent a long time studying Cuba from afar, I was thrilled to get the opportunity to visit and experience the country beyond the written word. My research looks at workers’ movements and imperialism in early twentieth century Cuba. With the help of funding from the Society for the Study of Labour History, I was able to visit the country to consult new archival material, and to gain first-hand experience, both of which were pivotal to bettering my understanding of the Cuban nation and its history.

I visited two Cuban national archives: the Archivo Nacional de la República de Cuba and the Biblioteca Nacional José Marti, where I originally planned to consult specific worker periodicals and correspondence between government officials. However, neither archive collection had a comprehensive and up–to-date online catalogue, so I had to take a step back from my original focus, and as a result discovered unexpected additional sources that enriched my experience.

The documents I consulted enabled me to stretch out the timeframe of my specialisms. I had previously focused on the years 1898-1902, a key period in Cuban history since it marked the beginning of a process of military occupation by the US. This was inscribed into formal legislation by the Platt Amendment in 1902. Given that US imperialism continued after 1902, through periodic military occupations and economic domination, it was important for my research to extend analysis to capture this period. Moreover, the Cuban labour movement´s transnational connections with Spain, the US and Latin America were notable. For example the 1920s was characterized by labour militancy in Cuba, and crucially the establishment of cross-border anti-imperialism movements such as the Liga Antiimperialista. This was created in 1925 by Latin American Communist organizations to oppose American and European intervention in Latin America, and Cuban workers were participants and signatories. The documents I consulted confirmed that workers in Cuba and across Latin America diagnosed imperial power as the product of a tight relationship between the US government and the private sector.

These archival trips gave me a better awareness of the English and German presence in Cuba. The factory disputes waged by Cuban anarchist and nationalist movements, which I had previously ascribed to being exclusively contests with the US, were in many cases also challenges to German or English capitalists. This was highlighted by consulting primary and secondary material on tobacco factories owned by German businessmen such as Don Gustavo Bock. Collaboration between numerous colonial powers is key to understanding the Cuban labour movements in this period.

It was also useful to consult papers headed by members of the Cuban conservative establishment, such as Diario de la Marina. Having previously placed greater focus on the publications of the labour movements, broadening my study to include these establishment publications was important in demonstrating how the labour movement was perceived by the elite class, and thus gave a better indication of the power balance between workers and capitalists.

I acquired a stronger understanding of the precarity of Cuban workers as subordinates to the US imperial government, but also as subordinate to Spanish workers residing in Cuba. This was gleaned from Alerta, a nationalist workers periodical, as well as meeting notes from the nationalist workers´ union, Liga General de Trabajadores Cubanos, and the nationalist political party Partido Obrero Cubano. Anarchist periodicals such as Rebelión, Tierra, El Nuevo Ideal and Germinal were equally vital. The difficulties faced by returning Cubans who had emigrated in search of work under Spanish colonialism (Cuba was a Spanish colony until power transferring to the US in 1898) was a common theme. Their return to Cuba was marked by preferential treatment of Spaniards who were chosen ahead of Cubans for both managerial and lower-level jobs. The resultant antagonism between Cubans and Spaniards was fundamental to dictating class consciousness, and was certainly a significant factor in constraining worker struggle under US imperialism. My research therefore further elucidated the difficulties of class universalism in Cuba in a context of antagonism between workers created by colonialism.

I also discovered fascinating secondary literature. One of these was the theorization from a Marxist perspective of the Cuban anarchist movement’s development, a rare pairing given the typical dismissal of anarchism by Cuban Marxists, despite the pivotal role that the anarchist movement played in the development of worker radicalism and anticolonial struggle in Cuba. It suggests that further research into intra-left distinctions will be helpful in forming a more complete picture of Cuban radicalism.

Finally, the trip to Cuba was valuable as I was able to collaborate with some incredible researchers, both Cuban and foreign. Our conversations guided my research in new directions, and were of significant inspiration in reaffirming the necessity of discussion and debate in research. I am extremely grateful to SSLH for granting me this funding which has helped me to nuance my existing understandings, as well as in carving out new terrain for my research and PhD trajectory.

Alex Doyle recently completed a Masters degree at the University of Leeds researching class, national identity and transnationalism in the Cuban labour movement’s opposition to Spanish colonialism and US imperialism (1898-1914).

Find out more about bursaries on offer from the Society for the Study of Labour History.