Alejandro Barreiro Olivera

A prominent labor union leader who maintained an intransigent and incorruptible attitude in service to the working class, one of the revolutionary fighters most hated by the dominant oligarchy of his time and also, for those very same reasons, one of the most beloved by workers.

He was born in Guanabacoa, in the bosom of a humble family, which determined his early entry into work to help his parents support the household. From apprentice he became a tobacco roller; and in 1919, a cigar worker, a profession he exercised throughout his life.

Because of his tenacity, organizational capacity and courage, he earned the respect of his companions and was elected in 1918, first as vice president and later as president of the Tobacco Sorters Guild. His prestige and authority as a labor leader kept growing and when he became a cigar worker, he was elected, in 1920, president of the Union of Workers in the Cigar Industry.

He participated actively in committees to aid unemployed workers and in committees for May First; he presided over and organized strikes in his sector, and supported those carried out by other workers. Of socialist ideological tendency, he joined the Socialist Grouping of Havana, where in 1912 he was elected vice president.

He carried out extensive dissemination of socialist ideas and in favor of political and ideological education of the proletariat, not only through direct work, but also as administrator of the newspaper El Socialista, director of Boletín del Cigarro, and administrator of Boletín del Torcedor.

Barreiro's multifaceted activity in the labor and socialist movement provoked the reaction of the dominant classes and for this reason he was detained many times and subjected to judicial proceedings in 1917, 1923 and 1925, among others. He also suffered threats of death and deportation, all of which were frequent in his life, dedicated to the cause of the proletariat.

He participated actively in the most important events of the Cuban working class to achieve labor union unity, as a member of circumstantial committees; delegate to the labor congress of the Workers Federation of Havana, to the first congress convoked by said organization, in December of 1924; to the second, which met in February of 1925 and to the third, held in August of that same year, in which the National Workers Confederation of Cuba (CNOC) was established.

His political life also developed in ascendance, so in November of 1918 he was elected president of the Socialist Grouping of Havana, which carried out an extensive campaign in favor of the October Revolution and other tasks. However, due to the contradictions that existed within this organization, the communists separated from it, and together with Carlos Baliño founded, on March 18, 1923, the Communist Grouping of Havana, embryo of the first Marxist-Leninist Party of Cuba.

He left Cuba under Party directives and returned in 1928, but upon arrival he was deported. In his exile in Mexico he continued his revolutionary work and joined the Association of New Revolutionary Emigrants (ANERC), founded by Julio Antonio Mella, with whom he maintained close bonds of friendship. From Mexico he was sent to the congress of Montevideo, in May of 1929 where the Latin American Labor Confederation was established.

He arrived in Cuba in the midst of the fall of the tyrannical government of Gerardo Machado, in 1933, and returned to the front lines of struggle in favor of workers. He joined his old workplace, the cigar factory "La Competidora", while at the same time being active in the party organization established in that place. He participated in the IV Congress of Labor Union Unity, in 1934 and in the worker struggles of the period.

He was detained after the strike of March 1935. The rigors of struggle, the vicissitudes and the work took their toll on his health, which progressively deteriorated. He died in Havana, at the age of 52, on January 21, 1937.