The Workers Movement in Guatemala
CIDAMO
The history of the workers' movement in Guatemala includes one of the most audacious chapters in the annals of class struggle in Latin America: the democratic revolution of 1944-54. And the...
...The current crisis of Guatemalan capitalism has meant worsening living conditions and superexploitation for the Guatemalan masses...
...In the 1930s, a drop in coffee prices to less than half their 1929 level, and a decline in the volume of coffee exports, set the stage for a long period of economic crisis and political change...
...The formation of the CGTG was without a doubt an important step for the workers' movement...
...Postal 21-132, Mexico 21, D.F...
...Together they accounted for more than 75 % of the votes in 1950, and both joined the National Democratic Front' in support of the Arbenz government against internal and external reactionary pressures...
...Alternatives being considered include the development of agroindustries producing for the world market, tourism, exploitation of nickel and oil resources, and the creation of free zones...
...Since its inception, CNUS has defined the scope of its activities to include the whole working population, and to extend beyond purely economic demands...
...The moment is thus ripe for the advance of the popular struggles in Guatemala, announcing the possibility that a pre-revolutionary crisis is near...
...Civil servants were granted the right to unionize and the possibility of collective bargaining, although strikes and the right of trade unions to participate in political struggle were still prohibited...
...Expressed in a growing challenge- including armed struggle- to bourgeois domination, this situation has reduced the maneuvering space of the dominant classes, and has allowed conflicts to arise within those classes...
...Despite intensely repressive conditions, Guatemalan workers have been able to overcome this most difficult period and have inGuatemala, like most Central American countries, has historically relied on one single export to sustain its economy...
...While small in size, the Federation included important unions such as the Light and Power Company workers and the Telecommunications Workers Union...
...THE WORKERS MOVEMENT IN GUATEMALA 1. Other participants in the Front included the Revolutionary Action Party, the Party of the Guatemalan Revolution, the National Renewal Party, and the Guatemalan Workers Party (Communist, legalized in 1951...
...With the 1944-54 revolution the middle bourgeoisie--leading a broad-based class alliance--took power from the hands of the dominant coffee producing and exporting groups...
...A stronger, independent and united struggle has allowed the working class to gradually distinguish itself, organically, politically and ideologically, from attempts on the part of the bourgeoisie to confuse and deflect the revolutionary struggle...
...The relatively more developed economies-Guatemala and El Salvador- received 45% of that total between 1963 and 1969...
...The struggles of dockworkers, railroad workers, day laborers on the coffee plantations and seamstresses continued despite the dangers, and gained momentum during the crisis of the 1930s...
...In April, there was an outbreak of broad-based popular activity, known as the Jornadas Civicas...
...rather, it has underlined the need for fundamental changes in the pattern of capitalist reproduction...
...Trade union policy was based on an alliance between workers and the incipient industrial bourgeoisie, a conception that flowed from the Popular Front theses of the Third International and from expectations that a nationalist bourgeoisie could lead industrialization...
...In addition, an agrarian reform was carried out under Arbenz to extend the internal market, raise the level of public consumption and, at the same time, respond to the peasants' demand for land...
...CONCLUSION The 1954 counterrevolution opened a new period of class struggle in Guatemala...
...Counterinsurgency dealt harsh blows to the workers, peasants and popular masses...
...In 1947, there were 65 trade unions in Guatemala, of which only 11 were legally recognized...
...In 1963, railroad, aviation and sugar workers, among others, formed the Guatemalan Workers Confederation (CONTRAGUA...
...Foreign investment, especially North American, played an important role...
...The traditional union leadership was finding it more and more difficult to contain the thrust of workers' and popular struggles...
...But the early 1960s saw a marked shift into manufacturing...
...And the counterrevolution that followed ranks among the most ferocious known to the continent...
...In Guatemala, foreign capital had traditionally controlled the production of agricultural goods for export...
...Between 1961 and 1966, the CIDAMO is the Center for Information, Documentation and Analysis of the Latin American Workers' Movement...
...beer and textile plants...
...investment rose 128%, and in 1969 represented 81.3% of total foreign investment in Central America...
...While bourgeois currents- and Christian Democracy in particular- continued to expand their influence in the labor movement, the seeds of independent unionism were already beginning to grow in the 1960s...
...This article is an abbreviated version of one that appeared in the November 1979 issue of Carta Informativa, a monthly publication by CIDAMO...
...In May 1966, a new constitution went into effect that included some labor reforms...
...In 1973, the consumer price index went up 14%, rising steadily thereafter, by 10.7% in 1976 and 12.6% in 1977 (Note: These are IMF figures...
...It confirmed the growing trend toward independence in the labor movement, and the rejection of bourgeois options that try to contain the popular movement...
...The period of workers' mobilizations which began in 1976 thus constitutes a new phase: The proletarian and popular masses have increasingly won their autonomy from the dominant classes, and a prerevolutionary crisis is approaching which coincides with similar situations in the region, particularly in Nicaragua and El Salvador...
...The railroad union in turn launched a strike against government repression, and the government proclaimed a state of siege...
...This industrialization in turn had its counterpart in the growth of an industrial proletariat, and the reconstitution of a workers' movement...
...In 1971, the government of Carlos Arana Osorio imposed another state of siege...
...The economic crisis is not just conjunctural...
...Under the successive governments of Arevalo and Arbenz, it undertook a series of tasks which tended to strengthen the middle bourgeoisie and promote industrialization...
...The October Revolution, as this process is known, triumphed in 1944 and lasted a decade...
...Capitalist relations were most developed in the transportation industry, with railroad workers numbering around 5,500 in 1945, and in the countryside, where 90% of the labor force was employed...
...The effects of this situation fell most heavily on the Guatemalan working class...
...With coffee as king, however, the economy was extremely vulnerable to price changes on the world market...
...The economic crisis- a crisis of the export economy and the political regime it produced-created favorable conditions for the rising middle industrial and commercial bourgeoisie, in its efforts to check the power of the agro-export bourgeoisie and the large landowning class...
...However, an incorrect policy of alliances, formulated by the movement's leadership, impeded the development of an independent program for the working class, restricting its field of action to the struggle for economic demands and support for the Arbenz government...
...A MULTI-CLASS ALLIANCE Guatemala's first trade union organizations were formed in the 1920s, primarily by craft workers...
...The growing coordination and unification of popular struggles began to weaken the pro-government sector of trade unionism, as well as the Christian Democratic current...
...The policy applied by the state was intended to subdue the workers' movement through large-scale repression and division...
...Trade union support was not enough to protect the October Revolution, which had promised to respect Guatemalan capitalism and undertaken to modernize it...
...The immediate target of this multiclass alliance was the Ubico dictatorship (1931-1944), the direct representative of the bourgeois-oligarchical regime in crisis...
...Confrontation with the state's repressive bodies and the bosses, as well as the economic crisis, have accelerated the development of a trade unionism independent of bourgeois leadership...
...During this period, the government made yet another attempt to control workers' struggles...
...DIVIDE AND RULE The reactionary offensive, which turned power over to Colonel Castillo Armas in 1954, was directed against the working masses and their organizations...
...The Trade Union Confederation of Guatemala (CONSIGUA) was founded in the following year, and included the union representing workers at United Fruit Company firms (STEUFCO...
...On this basis, Guatemala, whose level of industrialization was already the highest in the region at the end of the 1950s, consolidated its manufacturing sector...
...But the implementation of any bourgeois strategy must take into account the presence of a mass movement that has grown tremendously in size and stature since 1976...
...Despite the small size and dispersion of the working class, the trade union movement became a main pillar of support for the Arbenz government...
...More and more, it is led by a proletariat created by the industrialization process itself...
...Also in 1964, the Jan/Feb 1980 3132 NACLA Report Guatemalan Workers Federation (FSG) reappeared after an eight-year hiatus...
...In the 1960s, U.S...
...In the case of manufacturing, exports destined for the regional market were of fun-iamental importance...
...Mass mobilizations protesting the killing of four students took on major proportions, and confrontations between marchers and police produced an undetermined number of arrests, wounded and dead...
...While the labor force expanded by 4-5% a year, the number of newly created jobs increased by only 1.6...
...It was supported in this by large sectors of the urban petty bourgeoisie, as well as peasants and the still small proletariat...
...By the end of the revolutionary period, in 1953, and despite incentives to industry, urban production was still the province of artisans and small industries, 77% of which employed fewer than 20 workers...
...Nonetheless, it ratified the prohibition on workers' organizations in the countryside, on estates with fewer than 500 laborers...
...STRENGTHENING INDEPENDENT TRADE UNIONISM In the period 1968-75, the number and size of workers' mobilizations increased significantly...
...But industrialization was deeply affected by the vicissitudes of Central American economic integration, beginning in the mid-60s and aggravated in 1969 by the crisis of the Common Market...
...Trade union activity was renewed the following year, however, with a 67-day strike in the Atlantic Industrial Company that ended in the dissolution of the union and the "disappearance" of its secretary general...
...Another step was taken in 1946, with the formation of the National Committee for Trade Union 30 NACLA ReportJanlFeb 1980 31 Unity (CNUS) and another in 1951, when 400 organizations joined the General Confederation of Guatemalan Workers (CGTG...
...The rural working class consisted mainly of coffee workers and the 15,000 workers employed in United Fruit's banana enclave...
...Despite this proliferation of central trade union organizations, the rate of unionization in Guatemala remained below that reached during the Arbenz government...
...The industries with highest employment were textiles, shoes, garments and food products...
...At the same time, it created the domestic context for dependent capitalist development, in response to new tendencies in the post-war world economy...
...The intensity of repression in this period, while it failed to contain the upsurge of popular struggles, did slow down the advance of the workers' movement...
...According to 1977 data, manufacturing accounted for 35.6% of total foreign investment, followed by agriculture, with 21%, and commerce, with 16.9...
...From the start, workers had to confront violent repression at the hands of military governments, representing the bourgeois fractions linked to agro-exports...
...A railroad workers' strike was declared illegal in 1974, and repression broke the movement's leadership...
...Sectors of the landowning bourgeoisie, threatened by agrarian reform, hardened their opposition to the Arbenz regime...
...Six days later, CNUS announced its intention to begin work stoppages all over the country to halt the repressive escalation against unions.Coca- Cola was ultimately obliged by the government to reinstate the fired workers, and recognize the juridical personality of the union, but the offensive against labor continued...
...In addition, new unions and federations emerged, organizing bank employees, university workers, and municipal workers...
...At the express invitation of Castillo Armas, three high officials of the AFL-CIO and the Cuban Federation of Labor (under Batista) arrived in Guatemala in 1955, to "reorganize" the country's trade union movement...
...Its founding congress resolved to struggle for agrarian reform and industrialization, for the defense of workers' interests in the countryside, for workers' unity at the national and international levels, and for the defense of democracy and the national economy...
...According to the Economic Research Institute at the University of San Carlos, the cost of living rose by more than 50% in 1973...
...The United Fruit Company, the main representative of U.S...
...With the invasion and coup d'etat of 1954, the consequences of this policy became dramatically clear...
...In 1946, the Second Congress of the Guatemalan Workers' Federation (CTG) came out in support of industrial development and protection of trade, in addition to supporting the immediate economic demands of workers...
...Rising rates of unemployment and inflation were compounded by wage-squeeze policies applied by successive governments...
...This is the new context not only for the worsening economic crisis in Guatemala - a crisis of the very pattern of capitalist development put into effect after 1954--but also for the inability of the dominant groups to implement an alternative proposal...
...Foreign investment in manufacturing naturally flowed into the most profitable branches: textiles, food, tobacco, chemicals, automobiles, oil and iron...
...A new economic and political project was formulated emphasizing industrialization and social reform...
...Toward this end, the Committee of Agricultural Workers' Uni32 NACLA ReportlanlFeb 1980 33 ty (CUC) was formed, and later, the Democratic Front Against Repression...
...interests, also took the offensive, while new sectors of the Guatemalan bourgeoisie stood by in silent complicity...
...A trend toward unification of the trade union movement emerged during this period...
...The National Federation of Agricultural Workers (CNGG) was formed in 1950, outside the CTG...
...That same year, the Trade Union Council of Guatemala was set up, under the auspices of the U.S.-dominated ORIT (Inter-American Regional Workers' Organization...
...capital and the local bourgeoisies of Central America promoted a process of economic integration that tied the region to the more dynamic sectors of the world economy...
...The Trade Union Federation of Guatemala (FSG) became the strongest federation in the country, and attracted unions in the most powerful foreign and national firms...
...In 1964, only 2% of the economically active population in urban areas, and 0.2% in rural areas, belonged to unions...
...In 1962, the first signs of recovery of the mass movement marked the beginning of a new phase...
...Until the 1940s, urban industrial development in Guatemala had been virtually nil, with the exception of a few food processing, itiated, since the mid-70s, a newer and stronger phase of struggle...
...In addition to bloody repression of the centers of armed resistance, the military government ordered the dissolution of the central trade union organizations and the most combative unions, as well as the main political parties...
...WORKERS ON THE OFFENSIVE On March 24, 1976, 152 workers from Coca-Cola were unjustly fired, in an attempt to destroy that union's militancy...
...Manufacturing production grew even faster, at 9.2% A general rise in world prices for traditional exports, and the addition of sugar cane and livestock exports to the list, contributed to this rise in the GDP...
...The unification process begun by the CNUS soon collided with Christian Democratic interests embedded in the labor movement and engaged in divisionist activities...
...After 1973, however, the CTF was weakened by defections to other federations and internal splits...
...One consequence of this penetration was a high degree of monopolization in the region...
...At the same time, the revolutionary left has resurfaced...
...The rest was distributed in smaller proportions, among services, mining and construction...
...A solution to the crisis which favors the interests of those fractions linked to big national and foreign capital thus becomes increasingly remote...
...Under the leadership of this movement, the working masses are beginning to formulate their own solutions to the economic crisis that now engulfs the country, and the region as a whole...
...The Labor Code enacted in that year recognized the right to strike and established obligatory collective bargaining for industrial workers...
...Thus, by the mid-70s, the Guatemalan trade union movement had undergone important changes, not only in terms of quantitative growth, but mainly in the appearance of new sectors of social struggle...
...The generalized rise of mass struggle in Central America was best expressed in the victory of the Nicaraguan people...
...From 1959 to 1969, U.S...
...The workers' movement has made significant advances in both consciousness and organization, reestablishing the bases for independent mobilization...
...electricians and cigar workers mobilized to demand full-time work and respect of work contracts in 1974, and won in both cases...
...Christian Democratic currents were active as well in this period, particularly in setting up the Autonomous Trade Union Federation of Guatemala (FASGUA) in 1956, with a Catholic orientation...
...2. The first CNUS members included the United Sugar Workers Federation (FETULIA), the Central Workers Federation (FESETRAG), the Trade Union Federation of Bank Employees (FESEB), the Autonomous Trade Union Federation of Guatemala (FASGUA), the National Workers' Central (CNT), the Paper Workers Union, the Central Trade Union of Municipal Workers, and the Committee of Solidarity with the CocaCola Workers...
...In that year, the region's GDP grew by only 5.2%, and by 1975, affected by the world30 NACLA Report capitalist crisis as well, the growth rate of GDP was down to 2...
...It has created the environment for a new mass uprising, in progress since 1976...
...28 NACLA Reportregion's gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 6.3% a year, exceeding the growth rates of the 1950s...
...Going beyond the guerrilla experience, the left has extended its mass work, supporting the growth of higher forms of struggle against the dictatorship...
...Theescalation of repression and retaliation against workers led a number of organizations to convene a National Assembly of Trade Union Organizations on March 31, where they unanimously decided to create a unified body to confront repression: the National Committee of Trade Union Unity (CNUS...
...The CGTG, with more than 100,000 members in 1953, and the CNGG, with more than 200,000 members, were a powerful force...
...This coincided with a slowdown in economic growth, linked to the crisis of the Common Market at the end of the 60s, and to the outbreak of worldwide economic crisis...
...it was complemented by an effort to eliminate left influence in the unions, and to create a domesticated labor movement under the hegemony of the international "Western" confederations...
...These changes and conditions have radicalized the Guatemalan mass movement...
...In 1970, the Federated Workers' Central (CTF) was created through the merger of CONTRAGUA and CONSIGUA, with a leadership criticized for its pro-government stance...
...Faced with repression by the Arevalo government, agricultural workers increased their mobilizations and succeeded in abolishing this prohibition in 1948...
...The full version in Spanish can be obtained from CIDAMO, Apdo...
...In 1978, this collision led to a break between the CNT and CLAT, the Latin American Workers' Confederation, dominated by Christian Democratic forces...
...But there were victories as well...
...Workers found themselves isolated in the resistance, while the arms that Arbenz promised never arrived...
Vol. 14 • January 1980 • No. 1
