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International Viewpoint is a twice-monthly Marxist magazine providing current news analysis on international events. Recent issues have covered the coal miners' strike in Britain, the battle for a 35-hour workweek in West Germany, the Iran-Iraq war, and the Central American revoluWe offer a special introductory offer of three issues for $3. A six-month subscription is $22, and one-year of International Viewpoint is available for $42. For in-depth coverage of world events subscribe now! Write to Box 80B, 2520 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago, IL 60614. only thing that hasn't been established, said Robles, "is when they're going to buy the plant. But we're sure they're moving on this issue."

He said that he had been informed by J. Alberto Quintana, regional director of Coca-Cola for Central America and Panama, that there would be a meeting very soon in San Jose, Costa Rica, with three potential buyers from Central America, Europe, and the United States.

Metal workers occupy plant The victory of the Coca-Cola workers has inspired others.

Iwo months ago ALINSA (Aluminios Industriales, Sociedad Anonima), an aluminum fabricating plant, laid off 17 workers, including five union executive board members, and threatened to close the plant which employs a total of SEPTEMBER 1984 1 year ($42) • 6 month ($22))

rial subscription - 3 issues ($3) | tion.

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LATIN AMERICA REPORT Revolution" of Dr. Juan Jose Arevalo Bermejo and Col. Jacobo Arbenz. But after the 1954 CIA coup which overthrew them and put the army in power, "they took away all of our union rights, Pineda Ramirez says.

There was an attempt to rebuild the union again in 1957, he adds, but "there was so much repression and persecution that it was given up."

Then in 1970 Pineda Ramirez made another attempt to rebuild the union and was one of the founders of the Committee for the Socio-Economic Betterment of the Municipal Workers. It took four years of hard work, but by May 1, 1974, that committee had reorganized the union and sought recognition from the Ministry of Labor, and, after various delays, they were finally given the charter of the original 1947 SCMT.

But then, says Angel Alfonso Loareas, president of the Conflict Commission of the SCMT, the union fell into the hands of opportunists."

"I was a member of that previous executive board", says Alfonso Loareas, "and they didn't negotiate for the benefit of the workers. They negotiated for themselves and the company, so we decided to get rid of that opportunist group."

Three members of the old executive board broke away, joined with Pineda and another worker who had run as opposition candidates in the last elecCarrillo; the secretary of the interior, Rafael Sepeda Bernal; and union member Alejandro Hernandez Gonzalez were all either disappeared or murdered in the last six years. A more militant leadership can be expected to face even harsher repression. So far, the mayor refuses to meet with them.

Clandestine organizing

Perhaps the most impressive recent development in the Guatemalan labor movement is the creation of CONUS, a militant labor unity coalition. It was only four years ago that another such coalition had virtually its entire leadership-25 union officers-taken from a board meeting by the national police.

Dan Labotz Rodolfo Robles, general secretary of STEGAC. They were never seen again and are presumed murdered.

Yet today, because of the work of a couple of dedicated individuals, about 30 unions in the Guatemala City area have been brought together to form CONUS and are now reaching out to other areas in the country.

Some of these unions came together in support of the Coca-Cola workers. "That was, perhaps, our greatest showing of solidarity,' says one of the union leaders. The various unions gave food, helped with printing costs, offered advice and moral support. Today CONUS is helping other workers having problems, like the women workers at a textile plant, Tejidos Universales, and the militant union at the Cervezeria Nacional in Quetzaltenango.

"The main problem", says one of the union leaders, "is that we lack money. For example, we want to get in touch with workers in some other towns, but we don't have the money to make the trips."

Asked if the situation of the labor movement has improved, one of the CONUS leaders says, "The situation is the same, but we have to get ourselves organized."

It's not an easy job. Everything has to be done in a semi-clandestine fashion and through personal contact. "What progress we've made has been very small,' he adds. Still, it's remarkable that the unions are once again pulling together after the massacre of 1980.

Sitting around the table in the cafeteria in the CAVISA glass factory, the young men who make up the union executive committee mention the name of their fallen comrade, Fernando Garcia, and turn their heads away, look down, wipe their eyes. It's only five months since companero Garcia fell in the struggle.

"We've had constant persecution since we were founded, says one of the men. "We have had many martyrs to defend the working class. Our first general secretary, Martin Lopez Chacon, was kidnapped and disappeared in 1969."

Since then several others have been kidnapped, killed, or driven into exile, the most recent being Garcia.

"The biggest problem is the repression. It's hardest on our wives. They're the ones who must suffer the consequences. We tell our children that if we should disappear, they should not be afraid, and they should bear it with maturity,' he says.

"We go on because the situation here is always critical. We don't work for luxuries—we're poor, we have no luxuries. We fight in order to survive. Because we have to."