The Second World War had a profound impact on economy, society, and politics, and not least on organized labor, in Cuba as in the rest of Latin America. Cuba, however, differed somewhat from the other Latin American countries in that by the early 1940s as much as half of the work force was already unionized, and at least half these workers were in the agricultural sector. Both “revolutionary” and “populist” governments in the 1930s had granted workers new rights and a new status, and sought to incorporate them into the political system-and to control them. During the war, the Cuban government demanded and secured support from the unions and sacrifice from their members, including no-strike pledges. The last year of the war (1944-5) and victories for the Allies brought democratic elections, but it also unleashed pent-up demands from workers for wage increases and raised political expectations on the Left, both Communist and non-Communist. In the postwar struggle for the control of organized labor, which was intense and violent, the United States to a degree supported the non-Communist elements. In Cuba, unlike the rest of Latin America, labor militancy persisted after the purges of 1947-8 and the virtual elimination of Communist leaders, especially in the urban sector. But there was no union resistance to the return to dictatorship in 1952.

Cuban labor first began to organize itself at the end of the nineteenth century.