State and Revolution in Cuba: Mass Mobilization and Political Change, 1920-1940 (review)

For three decades, Cuban studies emphasized the origins, process, and aftermath of the 1959 revolution. Scholarly debates often mirrored political polarization, vigorously attacking or defending the revolution. With the end of the cold war in 1990 , a broader exploration of Cuban history emerged, particularly of the Cuban Republic (1902-58). State and Revolution in Cuba is a valuable contribution to this diversification. Whitney argues that Cuba's political culture changed profoundly between 1920 and 1940 , and he sets out to illuminate how and why. In the process, he sheds light on class and state formation, the incorporation of workers into politics, the transition from dictatorship toward democracy, and the role of the United States.

Whitney emphasizes the complexity of class formation, state formation, and political change. He views the state and revolution as "socially and historically constructed processes through which people struggle over issues of political, economic, and cultural power" (p. 13 ). In this perspective, which gives agency to the "popular classes," political change is a multifaceted, interactive process and not narrowly determined by class or economics. Instead of treating 1920-40 as a prelude to the revolution, Whitney believes it stands on its own as an important historical era that witnessed the collapse of the oligarchy and the political mobilization of the middle and working classes, culminating in revolution and the short-lived liberal government of 1933-34. The dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista was followed, in the late 1930 s, by an unlikely movement toward democracy.

Whitney skilfully dissects the complex nature of the 1920 s oligarchy. Since 1902 , Cuba was ruled through networks of regional and local caciques and caudillos forged through personal and ethnic loyalties. The politically powerful won access to state revenues and curried favor with the U.S. embassy (a dominant force in Cuba's politics and economy). The erosion of this system began when sugar prices plummeted in the early 1920 s. By the mid-1920 s, starvation was increasingly common among workers. In 1924 , 30 sugar mills were shut down, urban workers threatened a general strike, and students agitated for a more modern curriculum. Cuba's political culture changed under these pressures of mass mobilization, economic crisis, and revolution. The economic crisis that began in 1929 was a turning point. With the collapse of the U.S. market, by 1933 sugar production had fallen by 60 percent and tobacco by 68 percent. Hundreds of thousands of Cubans were out of work and desperate, strikes and unrest swept the country, and the middle and working classes demanded entry into the political arena—spurred by the idea that the state should protect workers against the uncertainties of capitalism.

The 1933 revolution ended oligarchic rule but survived only four months, in part because of the opposition of U.S. ambassador Sumner Welles. Widespread unrest and worker control of sugar mills raised the specter of social revolution. Welles feared that the moderate revolutionary government of Ramón Grau San Martín would neither protect U.S. economic interests nor produce a democracy fully satisfactory to the United States. He and his colleagues believed that the United States was the best judge of when Cuba would be ready for the "authority of the people" and that the masses could not be relied upon to be "responsible citizens" (p. 138 ). Consequently, he supported Batista's counterrevolution in January 1934.

The final three chapters of State and Revolution examine the this earlier revolution, the subsequent rule of Fulgencio Batista, and the transformation of the Cuban state. The mobilized popular classes were important in this process, pressuring the state for jobs, better working conditions, and political participation. While Batista suppressed labor unrest and opposition groups, he also recognized that stability required that they be included in the political process. Assuming the aura of a populist, he brought the eight-hour day, a minimum wage, and...