Guatemala: “La esperanza muere última”

As a trade union activist I don’t have to wear a bullet proof vest, check for bombs under my car, have bullet proof windows, armed guards, change venues of meetings at the last minute nor do I need to move address regularly….endure the threat of violence, kidnappings, rape, torture and death …..

But then I don’t live in Guatemala.

I listened to a talk this afternoon about the number of the trade unionists brutally murdered in Guatemala yet for every trade unionist slaughtered another activist will take their place.

We were given a history of Guatemala. The country has been plundered, the people oppressed over the centuries (Spanish conquistadors), the bloody and brutal fight for independence, coupled with, historically, the vested imperialist interests of the USA. During the 1940s the dictatorship of Ubico was overthrown.

United Fruit Company objected to the government’s policy of redistribution of land as they had a monopoly on the land.

And various individuals involved in the Eisenhower government had corporate interests in UFC (such as the Dulles’ brothers… Allen Dulles was the head of the CIA while his brother was also involved in the company).

Guess what…? In 1954 there was a ….CIA backed military coup that overthrew the progressive government…and a return to dictatorship. This resulted in a bloody civil war lasting 36 years…

So what now?

60% of Guatemalans live in poverty. And trade unionists fighting for their rights are being murdered. Paramilitary death squads, the state, and the police are all complicit in these attacks. I mean, remember, Ronald Reagan once said: ‘Elminate all sources of resistance’…. And they still are…

The politics of neoliberalism and globalisation attack the poorest, they fight back and are subjected to state terrorism and violence. Another strand which further reflects the oppression is violence against women.

Guatemala’s femicide has claimed the lives of nearly 2,200 women and girls since 2001.

Yet the US backed government does nothing… total impunity for the killers. Or as Risa Grais-Targow observes: It is simply not in the interests of the Guatemalan oligarchy to investigate these crimes and punish the perpetrators.

This is a society that crushes workers’ dissent, women, especially indigenous women, who invariably live on the margins, are subjected to racism and violence. The rampant misogyny engendered in this society simply views a woman’s life as expendable and cheap… No value…nothing. It is beyond comprehension and understanding…

Nine trade unionists were murdered last year.

In early 2007 Pedro Zamora, General Secretary of the Guatemalan STEPQ dockers’ union was shot dead in front of his children, his daughter was wounded.

And especially vulnerable are the banana workers..

On September 23rd Marco Tulio Portela Ramirez,a union organizer, was brutally gunned down outside his home as he prepared to go to work at the Bandegua banana plantation, a subsidiary of Del Monte Fresh Produce.

Listening to this talk made me even more aware of the bravery of these men and women who put their life on the line every day when they continue the fight for trade union rights….. human rights.

Solidarity to you, comrades!

As the saying goes: La esperanza muere última

Articles on women in Guatemalan society

Femicide in Guatemala

Guatemala Human Rights

Welfare reform: edging closer to the Workhouse

Jonthan Rutherford on the stark implications of the Welfare Reform Bill especially with regards to the private sector at the forefront of this draconian piece of legislation. An incidental, but for me an important one, is that sections of the liberal media have FINALLY woken up after smelling the wretched Dickensian stench that emanates from this Bill.

Rutherford is correct in his observations, from the new ‘improved’ PCA, computerised evaluations and targets. And don’t get me started on Atos Origin!!!! Or vile medical faceless US based corporations like Unum who have their corporate fingers in the financial pie (see Michael Moore’s excellent film Sicko for the lowdown on these creeps).

It is indeed an ideological attack on the poor, it is the politics of the workhouse. It will create more mental distress as desperation and misery will increase. The further obstructions, conditionality and hurdles people will face along with the threat of sanctions hanging over people.

Rutherford is pushing for amendments regarding the rules at the Lords stage, as correctly he states there aren’t any safeguards, though whether they will be accepted is another thing (as we saw at the 2nd reading in Parliament).

 This Bill needs to be ditched.