The Cuban Insurrection, 1952–1959

Cuban Popular Resistance to the 1953 London Sugar Agreement

“…65 On 8 December, Raul Castro, who commanded the ' Frank País Second Front' in the Sierra Cristal mountains, convened, in the name of the FONU, a congress of workers' delegates that endorsed the twelve-point programme as well as formally repudiating the mujalista control of the CTC, whilst adding to the list some demands specific to the sugar industry, 66 which were subsequently endorsed at the ' First National Conference of Sugar Workers in Liberated Territory' held on 20 and 21 December in the area controlled by Camilo Cienfuegos. 67 The report of this conference made a comparison between the years 1957 and 1951, which both had the same harvest of about 5 million tons, while the sugar price for 1957 had risen back to 5.2¢ per pound, similar to the price of 5.29¢ per pound in 1951. The profits declared for 1951 had been 106 million pesos but this figure had risen to 135 million pesos in 1957 while the total wage bill, at 321 million pesos, was 90 million pesos less.…”