Lázaro Peña González

Leader of the Cuban labor movement. Leader of the Communist Party of Cuba and Secretary General of the Central Organization of Cuban Workers.

Lázaro Peña González was born in La Habana. His parents were Evaristo Peña, a carpenter and mason, and Antolina González, a tobacco stemmer worker. Orphaned of his father at ten years of age, he sought employment to contribute to his family's sustenance, and therefore did not complete primary education, which he had begun at Public School No. 67 in La Habana.

He performed various trades: carpenter, blacksmith, plasterer, and mason. In 1925 his mother managed to get him employed at the tobacco factory "El Crédito," as an assistant to the coffee distributor for workers; he also worked, occasionally, as a tobacco factory reader, and finally learned the trade of tobacco roller. He was approved as a worker, but lost his job in a personnel reduction.

At eighteen years of age he joined the ranks of the Communist Party of Cuba, then clandestine. In 1932 he participated in various strikes and demonstrations; he was detained by police and served ninety days in prison in the Castillo del Príncipe. Due to his record in organizing worker and unemployed nuclei in the Luyanó neighborhood, he was appointed Secretary General of the Sectional Committee of the Communist Party in the area and was part of the District Committee of the organization. He also contributed to the establishment of the agricultural union movement and participated in the creation of the National Union of Sugar Industry Workers (SNOIA).

In 1933 he intervened in activities against the dictatorship of Gerardo Machado, standing out in a worker demonstration on August 1st, as part of the agitation of the labor and revolutionary movement that also led to the occupation of sugar mills, mass demonstrations, and worker confrontations demanding their demands. For fifteen days he directed some of those important revolutionary actions in factories and workshops; on the bus and streetcar routes of Jesús del Monte. He distributed manifestos, spoke with workers, held rallies, and visited factories.

He was elected member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party at its II Congress, held in 1934. In the same year he participated in the IV Congress of Union Unity and was elected Secretary General of the Tobacco Workers' Union. The following year he became a member of the leadership of the National Labor Confederation of Cuba (CNOC). At the fourth plenary session of that organization, held in La Habana during July 21-22, 1935, Lázaro Peña presented a report highlighting the importance of immediately forming an anti-imperialist united front that would unite all forces capable of combating United States intervention in Cuba's internal affairs. The CNOC's program of struggle promoted by him included the struggle for salary increases, the application and extension of existing social legislation, the right to organize strikes, and the demand for immediate aid to the unemployed.

In 1937 he closed the commemorative event of May First in Hatuey Park in La Habana, the most significant labor event after the March 1935 strike. A year later he intervened at the Labor Congress–held at the Tobacco Rollers' Society in La Habana–, where the Federation of Workers of La Habana was established, with José María Pérez Capote as president. Once again, in 1936, he gave the closing remarks at the May First commemoration at La Polar stadium in Puentes Grandes, with over 70,000 attendees.

He traveled to Mexico at the head of the Cuban delegation that would participate in the founding of the Confederation of Workers of Latin America (CTAL) and intervened in its Constituent Congress on behalf of the Cuban delegation. Upon his return to La Habana he was elected Secretary General of the Confederation of Workers of Cuba (CTC) at a Congress held from January 23-28, 1939, through which a solid labor organization was achieved.

Between February and June 1940 he developed intense political work around the Constituent Assembly. With his signature, he presented to the Convention the document Statement of the Confederation of Workers of Cuba, which presented the precepts that should be contained in the Magna Carta, both on general matters and regarding social rights, in order to guarantee a democratic republican system of government. As part of his work to achieve acceptance of the proposals contained in the document, he succeeded in having workers fill the upper part of the Hemiciclo, occupy the gardens of the Capitol and Central Park in show of support for them. In the general elections of 1940 he won a seat as Representative to the Chamber for the province of La Habana, for the Revolutionary Communist Union Party (PURC).

At the II Congress of the CTC, held in La Habana from December 12-16, 1940, he was re-elected Secretary General.

He presided, in 1943, over the meeting where the CTC was legally established. In 1945 he participated in the founding of the World Federation of Trade Unions (FSM) and from then on was part of its leadership cadres: member of the Executive Committee, secretary, vice president, and president.

Lázaro Peña led the struggles to achieve the sugar differential alongside Jesús Menéndez, who—with Jacinto Torras—had participated in negotiations carried out with the United States government during 1946 and 1947 regarding that country's sugar trade policy with respect to Cuba.

In 1947 the delegates to the V Congress of the CTC elected him, once again, secretary general and he maintained the unitary line in the organization. But the government of Ramón Grau San Martín invalidated that assembly and called for another the following July, conducted by the National Labor Confederation, which was directed by Eusebio Mujal Barniol. In the context of the Cold War, the police, as part of the anti-communist repression policy, raided the CTC headquarters and removed its leadership. From then on there was a "mujalist" labor organization, recognized by the government, which the people ironically called CTK, in reference to subsection K, instituted in 1943 within the Tax Expansion Law, which made it possible to embezzle State budget funds. The unitary tendency of the CTC was made illegal.

In the 1948 presidential elections, Lázaro Peña presented his candidacy for vice presidency, accompanying Juan Marinello, an aspirant to the presidency. Both represented in the campaign the Socialist People's Party (PSP).

In 1949 he attended the II Congress of the FSM in Milan, Italy, where the International Trade Union Organizations (UIS) were established. He also participated in the meeting of the Confederation of Workers of Latin America (CTAL) held in La Habana, as the sole FSM delegate; there his voice rose in defense of the peoples of Latin America.

He condemned the coup d'état carried out by Fulgencio Batista on March 10, 1952, which intensified persecution against him. At the end of 1953 he went to Mexico; from there he traveled to Vienna to attend the III Congress of the FSM, at which he was elected Secretary for Latin American Affairs and ratified as Vice President of the Federation.

In 1959, following the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, he returned to the country and immediately integrated himself into the process of revolutionary transformations that was beginning. At the XI Congress of the CTC-Revolutionary, in November 1961, he was elected Secretary General of the Central Organization of Cuban Workers, a position he held until the next assembly, held in 1966. From his position at the CTC, Lázaro Peña fought for the elimination of mujalismo in the union movement, for the creation of national unions structured by industry, for the incorporation of workers into the literacy campaign called for by the revolutionary government, for adult education, the incorporation of women into the workforce, and the training of union cadres. He also directed campaigns in support of sugar harvests.

In 1965 he joined the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, and was appointed to head a labor commission that advised the highest leadership body of the party on all matters concerning labor and social policy.

In early 1973 he was appointed Head of the Department of Mass Organizations of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba to oversee the Central Organization of Cuban Workers (CTC), the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP), the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR), and the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC).

At the XIII Congress of the Central Organization of Cuban Workers (CTC) in November 1973, he was once again elected secretary general of Cuba's highest labor organization, despite suffering from a grave illness. He died on March 11, 1974. His funeral, held two days later at Necrópolis Cristóbal Colón, was a gigantic manifestation of popular mourning, led by Prime Minister Fidel Castro.