Palace of Labor

President Ramon Grau San Martin signed a decree last week, granting $772,000 for a Workers' Palace in Havana. A block long, with a huge auditorium, luxurious offices, it will serve as headquarters for the Communist-led Confederation of Cuban Workers. Nowhere else in Latin America will labor have such a home.

Behind the grant lay a snarl of politics, tangled even for Cuba. In last year's election the Confederation of Cuban Workers fought against Grau, supported President Fulgencio Batista, who had legalized the Communist Party (now called the Popular Socialist Party), helped its labor branch develop political force.

Batista lost the election, but the Communists won a strategic advantage. With three seats in the Senate, they held the balance of power. Under their crack-voiced mulatto leader, Lazaro Pena, they were in a position, to put a demolition charge under the President whenever they chose to. Grau paid for their support with wage increases, other favors, of which the most dazzling was the Workers' Palace.

With no such political club wherewith to threaten the President, the non-Communist unions declined in prestige and power. The Communist unions expanded until now they control 400,000 tightly organized workers.

Another handy club was burly ex-President Batista, who enriched himself in office. After losing to Grau, he has wandered in Latin America, in unofficial exile. But the Communists did not forget their oldtime friend. Recently, they extracted a promise from Grau not to prosecute Batista if he should return to Cuba. If he does return, the Batista-Communist team can pose a serious threat to Grau's well-meaning regime.

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