Cuba and its compatriots will remember this 19 September the assassination of one of its labour leaders: Enrique Varona González, on the occasion of the centenary of his long journey into history and immortality.

One of those who will not only commemorate but will also tell new generations in a special way about the heroism of he who was also a poor peasant and an exploited worker, will be Larry Morales, president of the Nicolás Guillén foundation branch in Ciego de Ávila.

Because Varona was born in Consolación del Sur, Pinar del Río province, on 13 July 1888, but he was forged as a labour leader in the Avilanian town of Morón, with marked prominence in the workshops and the railway terminal, where the locomotive’s whistle sounded announcing the train’s immediate departure and the victory in that general strike of the railway workers.

He defended the most elementary rights of the permanent way and works workers, who were the most exploited. He organised the stevedores and dockers of the Tarafa port. Not only that, but he went to the sugar mills, listened to the workers’ demands, studied their claims, and launched into the fight for fundamental labour rights.

Thus, he achieved the unity of the forces of these large sectors in the battle against the exploiters. The event of greatest significance led by the distinguished trade unionist began in the first days of September and concluded on 25 December 1924.

It became known as the Sugar Mill Strike; in reality, railway and port workers also participated, an event turned into a war without quarter, due to the repression undertaken by the army, the employers, and the consortia.

The most intimate life story of the exemplary leader is told by Larry Morales in his book entitled Enrique Varona, the Leader of a Thousand Strikes.

“The eve of Christmas 1922, Enrique had told me that he wished to spend that day alongside the most exploited. I did not reproach him for his attitude, on the contrary, I was pleased by it. His gesture moved me so much that the roast suckling pig I had to eat at home with my daughters, I took it to the camp for him. We had great fun. He was happy alongside his two apples of his eye, as he used to call Leonor and Nieves, and alongside me, and also the workers whom he considered like family,” recalled Ana Lugo, Varona González’s widow.

The assassination of Varona on 19 September 1925 is described by the Avilanian writer in this manner: “While a thug ran towards the barracks to collect the shameful payment, a brave man, already dying, embraced his wife as if to whisper in her ear: ‘I die for the workers’, which was like saying he was going to live eternally”.