Labor movement
At this stage there is a boom in the labor movement and in the struggles for economic and social demands, among which the strike of March 1935 and the foundation of the CTC, among others of a national nature, can be highlighted. Thus, on May 2, 1931, the Sociedad Obreros de Martí was established here and it was agreed to manifest to the civil governor the composition of the board of directors consisting of José Yanes García as president, Domingo Yanes and Emilio Saavedra and the alternates José A. Olivera, Pedro Díaz , Florencio Figueroa, Francisco Morales, Domingo Lezcano and Luis Pulido.
In 1933 the first labor union of the central Guipúzcoa today CAI Esteban Hernández was founded by Lázaro Sotolongo, Leopoldo Mergares (Papito), Miguel Castro and Juan Pedroso Menéndez, and at the beginning of the 1934 harvest it was made up of Donato Ripell (Secretary General) and also by Leopoldo Mergares, Miguel Castro, Lázaro Sotolongo, Emilio Beltrán, Ramón Yanes and Miguel Morales. This year the eight-hour working day is introduced in the twelve place as it has been established up to now. In this same year Donato Ripoll was assassinated by another worker for a difference in work and he occupies the position of general secretary Leopoldo Mergares who was a member of the executive of said workers' organization.
After the Confederation of Cuban Workers (CTC) was established, Valentin Pedroso was elected as general secretary and was also made up of Leoncio Torres, Prudencio and Juan Tortoló, Ramón Yanes, Miguel Castro and others.
There is also a worker organization in the municipality called the Association of Workers of the Agricultural Colonies of Martí, whose president and permanent delegate was Bonifacio Romero Pérez, who according to the record of the elections verified by this association on November 18, 1934, was re-elected. President for the following term that began on the first Sunday of December, but already on the 10th of the same month, Bonifacio denounced that a group of approximately 50 people led by Ramón Gonzáles Sierra and Agapito Gonzáles invaded the portals of the premises where the Association operated (in front of the railway station) threatening to break the closed doors and demanding his resignation.
Romero maintains that these elements who wanted to enter the association's premises by force shouted "Viva Tabío!" and die black Romero! Without any agent of the authority trying to prevent that uncivil act. As can be seen in the foregoing by Romero, the elements of the incident were organized by officials of the municipal administration, especially by Dr. Lucas Alvarez Tabío who did not agree with the activities he had been carrying out in defense of the workers, the aforementioned Association of Workers of the Agricultural Colonies of Martí.
In a telegram sent to the provincial office of work in Matanzas by this association on April 24, 1934, it says verbatim: “Provincial office of labor in Matanzas, Desperate Agricultural Workers Situation. Wicked exploitation push us to strike. Urged intervention requested from that center, Bonifacio Romero Pérez, Permanent Delegate ”.
On May 9 of the same year, through the Resolution of the Provincial Secretariat of Labor, the Martí Social Cooperation Commission was created to try to resolve the demands presented by the Association of Agricultural Workers of Martí to the Association of Settlers.
The workers' struggles continue in this turbulent period of the 30s and on August 18, 1934, the worker of Spanish origin Saturnino Breñas Alonso, from Banaguises and activist of the Matanzas district committee of the communist party, arrived in the Pintó neighborhood of this municipality and the next day he began his first and only day of work in said colony, in the afternoon he summoned the workers in a guardrail to an improvised assembly where he called for a strike if their demands were not met. The workers harangued by Braña initiate the strike and present the demand for $ 1.00 as wages for cutting and planting cane. The owner of the farm, José Alcebo Hernández, did not accept the demand and denounced Brañas at the Itabo rural guard headquarters.
In the extraordinary session of the Martí agricultural workers association, dated November 26, 1934, the delegates from the different colonies protested the 50-cent wage they were paid under threat from the employers to report to the rural guard. if they refused to work for non-conformity with the mentioned salary.
In this same session, the representation of the Alameda neighborhood stated that they had a voucher in payment of a wage of 50 cents as proof of the violation of the pact signed with the Employers where they promised to pay 80 cents per day and they also requested that in the colonies no He had to deny the residents the piece of land that had been granted to them to plant some meats in order not to starve when they carried out the work due to their extinction or for the convenience of the employers, such was the precarious economic situation in which the workers of the agricultural colonies of this territory lived.
On July 26, 1934, case 48/34 was filed with the emergency court of Matanzas against Antonio Jorejuría Amat, administrator of the San Ricardo farm for not paying what was agreed upon to one of his workers named Cirilo Marrero, in whose case they declared the witnesses Bonifacio Romero Pérez, Cirilo Marrero Rojas, Candelario de Armas Ricabal, Otilio Menéndez, José María Menéndez and Dr. Lucas Alvarez Tabío, Municipal Mayor.
Although it is true that in the provisional conclusions the prosecutor requested 6 months in prison and payment of the costs in total, it is no less true that in the final judgment he modified his provisional conclusions and later requested the release of Jorajuría and declared him free of cost payment. This was confirmed by the court through sentence # 11, which clearly shows the mechanisms of compromise existing at the time that ruined the interests of the powerful and the few possibilities that the workers had to make their elementals more valuable. rights.
On the other hand, José María Jorajuría, owner of the Favorite neighborhood who had already been confronting problems with his workers and his labor organization, is accused on September 12, 1936 by Nicolás Pedroso and other workers up to No. 20 for paying his workers. with vouchers, which had to be exchanged for merchandise at the Luis María Herrera winery in Itabo and that these vouchers were liquidated on the 2nd and 17th of each month as they lost their validity if they were not consumed. The workers who accused Jorajuría for this violation were, in addition to Nicolás Pedroso, Juan Carrillo, Domingo Gómez, Heriberto Alcalá, Santiago Marques, Agapito García, Santos Alcalá, Ismael Morales, Severiano Menéndez, Miguel Peñalver, Alejandro Triana, Pedro Menéndez, Manuel Paz , Antonio Menéndez, Ismael García, Francisco García, and Reyes Herrera.
In March 1935, the last great workers' movement corresponding to the revolution of the 1930s took place. During the strike, the municipality was held incommunicado, since the railway workers (the only means of transportation up to here), joined the strike and even On March 13, the trains did not start running.
The teachers' class joined the strike movement massively in the province, causing the paralysis of teaching activities in all the municipalities. In Martí, one of the most prominent sectors was precisely the educational sector, as one hundred percent of the schools remained closed. Thus, on March 12, the municipal mayor, Dr. Lucas Álvarez Tabío, worried about the situation, informed the provincial governor that no teacher was willing to attend classes.
Due to the great effectiveness that the strike had achieved in this sector throughout the province, the secretary of public instruction through the provincial superintendent of schools lets all the personnel related to the public school know that they had a deadline of one in the afternoon. on the 14th to return to work, otherwise it was considered that they had resigned or would immediately be replaced.
Faced with the chaotic economic situation that the teachers were going through, like the other workers in the country and before the ultimatum received from the government, many teachers, fearful of losing their place, began to give in to their strike purposes and thus informed the municipal mayor to the provincial governor states that a large number of teachers had resumed class work in the afternoon of March 14.
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