THE revolutionary student whirlwind had reached its peak on December 2, 1955, when José Antonio Echeverría, president of the Federation of University Students (FEU) called for combat against the Batista dictatorship. The events were a chain reaction:

— December 2: Student demonstration led by José Antonio and Fructuoso to deliver a letter to Colonel Cosme de la Torriente condemning the so-called "civic dialogue," and demonstrating that the only way was revolutionary rebellion, and as an exceptional event, an armed commando under the leadership of Faure Chomón including Juan Pedro Carbó, José Machado —Machadito— and José Assef, who repelled the police repression injuring 15 members of the force, among them Commanders Rey Castro and Paco Pérez.

— That same December 2, during the night, there was an action at the Duplex movie theater on what is now San Rafael Boulevard, involving Osmany Cienfuegos, Marcelo Fernández, Durruthy and this reporter, all of whom suffered a pitiless beating at No. 3 Police Station, located on Teniente Rey and Zulueta Streets.

— The action at the baseball stadium in Cerro, mounted by Juan Nuiry, Marcelo Fernández, Blás Arrechea, José and Julio Fernández Cossio, and José Smith Comas, among others.

— The demonstration "in reverse" on December 7, which began in Maceo Park and headed for the University of Havana, led by my brother-in-struggle, the recently deceased René Anillo, acting president of the FEU, which was violently repressed by Batista’s thugs, who shot at and injured many students, including Juan Pedro Carbó and the man who later became the heroic Comandante, Camilo Cienfuegos.

— The murder in Ciego de Avila of student Raúl Cervantes, while he was participating in a demonstration.

— The five-minute strike called by the FEU in the midst of the events that were occurring, which was backed by the working people, thus revealing the degree of public awareness that had been reached.

— And as the climax, the sugar workers’ strike demanding the differential (payments), restitution for wages cut back during the past harvest, and jobs for workers who had been laid off.

The student actions of December 1955 involved students from the Universities of Havana, Santiago de Cuba, and Las Villas; the high schools; the technical colleges; the teachers and business colleges; and private schools.

During 1955, workers’ movements sprang up that had social-economic content, but also a strong political aspect, and that is where the FEU came in. Striking bank workers, electrical workers and match workers went to the university to seek student support. José Antonio immediately offered the support, coordinated with the FEU Secretariat on Workers’ Affairs, which I headed.

But the greatest expression of the worker-student alliance that year was the sugar workers’ strike in late December, which was an escalation of the socio-political confrontation with the dictatorship.

Sugar workers throughout the country were going on strike for their demands throughout almost all of 1955. The puppet CTC was a "yellow" union, bending to the interests of the owners with the support of the pro-imperialist, anti-worker Batista government. Under those conditions and with the strong student movement initiated on December 2 behind them, the sugar worker leaders at that time – Conrado Bécquer, a deceased comrade and Conrado Rodríguez, a traitor – presented themselves at the end of that month at Castillo de Príncipe, where I was being held with José Antonio and his brother Alfredito. During his meeting with the two Conrados, José Antonio asked us to participate, and the FEU’s support was promised to the sugar workers strike; hence its presence in the different regions of the country after December 25: Las Villas, Ciego de Avila, Camagüey, Santiago de Cuba, Matanzas, Pinar del Rio, and Guantánamo. Fructuoso Rodríguez, Juan Pedro Carbó, José Assef, Pedro Martínez Brito, Joe Westbrook, Antonio Guevara –Ñico-, Faure Chomón and I spread out to the different places with the students and workers leaders. City councils were occupied, as were churches, schools, and union offices. Demonstrations were organized that led to confrontations with the agents of repression of the Batista dictatorship, at the same time as a national uproar over the worker-student alliance. Martí’s ideas were expressed in their maximum relevance.

José Antonio Echeverría, the glorious president of the FEU, accompanied by René Anillo and Julio García Oliveras, made a tour of support for the strike movement throughout the country, finally arriving in Santiago de Cuba, where he met up with Frank País, Pepito Tey and Temístocles Fuentes. That was decisive in Conrado Bécquer’s repeated statement that José Antonio had been the "political chief of the sugar workers strike of December 1955."

And finally, it goes down in history that the movement initiated on December 2, 1955 under the leadership of José Antonio Echeverría, became so deep that also by the end of December, when we were still imprisoned in the Castillo del Príncipe, Dr. José Miró Cardona met with José Antonio. After the meeting, we noticed that he was very thoughtful; that was how most of the day went, and in the afternoon he informed us that Miró Cardona had spoken of the existence of a Army conspiracy against the Batista dictatorship in January of 1956, and that he was there to request support from the FEU for the uprising, immediately approved by José Antonio. The action did not happen, and the so-called PUROS conspiracy was discovered in April 1956.