Presentation Description:
This presentation explores an often neglected dimension of Cuban history and labor history in general. The Cuban Revolution (1959) permanently associated Cuban radicalism with anti-imperialist nationalism and, eventually, Communism. However, during the mid-late
nineteenth century, a vibrant and diverse radical movement that embraced a variety of anarchist ideological orientations—mutualist, collectivist, communist—exerted a tremendous influence on the Island’s first labor organizations, particularly among cigar makers.
Furthermore, the anarchist ideology and work culture of Cuban cigar makers moved beyond the Island’s shore when the workers immigrated to Southern Florida and New York City both in search of employment and in flight from the devastation wrought by the Ten Years’ War


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