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Octubre: Communist Appeal to the Urban Labor Force of Guatemala, 1950-1953

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Ralph Lee Woodward Jr.
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Extract

The urban labor force in the capital of Guatemala holds a potential strength out of proportion to its numbers. The power of the urban labor force stems from the fact that (1) though a minority of the total population of the republic, it forms a numerical majority in Guatemala City where national decisions are made; (2) it is a compact group which can be more readily and efficiently organized than the sprawling agrarian labor force; and (3) once organized, it is an available and effective political force. Party dialectic aside, these factors are sufficient to make urban labor an attractive instrument for international Communist propaganda and infiltration.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Inter-American Studies , Volume 4 , Issue 3 , July 1962 , pp. 363 - 374
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 1962

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References

1 James, Daniel, Red Design for the Americas: Guatemalan Prelude (New York, 1954), pp. 108–109 Google Scholar.

2 Woodward, Ralph L. Jr., Communist Infiltration of the Guatemalan Urban Labor Movement, 1920-1954 (M. A. Thesis, Tulane University, New Orleans, 1959), pp. 1–40 Google Scholar; see also Alexander, Robert J., Communism in Latin America (New Brunswick, 1957), pp. 350–360 Google Scholar; and Schneider, Ronald M., Communism in Guatemala, 1944-1954 (New York, 1958), pp. 1–173 Google Scholar.

3 United States Department of State, Penetration of the Political Institutions of Guatemala by the International Communist Movement: Threat to the Peace and Security of America and to the Sovereignty and Political Independence of Guatemala (Washington, 1954), pp. 9, 22-24, and Annex B, pp. 12, 43.

4 Octubre (Guatemala), 21 June, 1950, p. 4.

5 Alexander, op. cit., p. 360.

6 Evans, F. Bowen, Worldwide Communist Propaganda Activities (New York, 1955), pp. 3–33 Google Scholar.

7 Octubre, 12 March, 1953; 19 March, 1953; 26 March, 1953 (Stalin death issues).

8 Ibid., 21 June, 1950, p. 1.

9 Archer C. Bush, Organized Labor in Guatemala, 1944-1949 (Hamilton, N. Y., 1950), part III, p. 5.

10 Octubre, 28 June, 1950, p. 1.

11 Ibid., 6 September, 1950, p. 3; 13 September, 1950, p. 2; 1 November, 1950, p. 1; 23 November, 1950, p. 1.

12 Ibid., 1 November, 1950, pp. 1-2.

13 Ibid., 6 December, 1950, p. 1.

14 Ibid., p. 2.

15 Ibid., 11 April, 1951, p. 2.

16 Ibid., 6 June, 1951, p.

17 Ibid., 6 June, 1951, p. 1; 18 October, 1951, p. 3.

18 Ibid., 11 July, 1951, p. 6.

19 John D. Martz, Communist Infiltration in Guatemala (New York, 1956), p. 34.

20 Octubre, 20 June-9 September, 1951.

21 Ibid., 27 March, 1952, p. 4; 3 April, 1952, p. 4; 17 April, 1952, p. 1.

22 Ibid., 17 July, 1952, p. 1.

23 Ibid., 9 October, 1952, p. 1.

24 Ibid., 15 May, 1952, p. 2.

25 Ibid., 9 October, 1952, p. 2.

26 James, op. cit., p. 73; see also Martz, op. cit., pp. 33-34.

27 Martz, op. cit., p. 35.

28 Octubre, 10 October, 1952, p. 1. Typical union political committees were the Committee of Textile Workers, Unitary Committee of Workers in Airline Services, Electoral Committee of the Public Works Workers, and the Municipal Workers Committee.

29 Martz, pp. 35-36. Guerra Borges felt that the name “Communist” handicapped the movement, and that the political party named “Labor” seemed more respectable to many people. It was also an effort to dodge Article 32 of the Constitution forbidding the formation and functioning of political organizations of an international or foreign character, which might have kept the party from registering in the 1955 elections. The name was officially changed during the Second Congress of the party, 11-14 December, 1952.

30 Octubre, 18 December, 1952, p. 6.

31 Ibid., p. 3. The following persons were elected to offices of the executive committee of the PGT at the Second Congress:

Secretary General of the Central Committee: José Manuel Fortuny.

Policy Commission of the Central Committee: José Manuel Fortuny, Bernardo Alvarado Monzón, Antonio Ardón, José Alberto Cardoza, Alfredo Guerra Borges, Virgilio Guerra Méndez, Víctor Manuel Gutiérrez, Carlos Manuel Pellecer, José Luis Ramos, Mario Silva Jonama, and Carlos Rene Valle.

Secretariat of the Central Committee: José Manuel Fortuny, Bernardo Alvarado Monzón, Alfredo Guerra Borges, Mario Silva Jonama, and José Luis Ramos.

Director of Octubre: Alfredo Guerra Borges.

32 Ibid., 16 October, 1952, p. 5.

33 Ibid., 11 April, 1951, p. 2.

34 This type of propaganda was common throughout the existence of Octubre. It appears to have been aimed at labor in an attempt to arouse public opinion against the United Nations’ intervention in Korea.

35 Ibid., 17 January, 1951, p. 1; 10 January, 1951, p. 1.

36 Martz, op. cit., pp. 62-63; United States Department of State, Penetration …, 22-24, and Annex B, pp. 12, 43.