Guatemalan Party of Labour

Former political party in Guatemala

The Guatemalan Labour Party (Partido Guatemalteco del Trabajo) was a Marxist Leninist party in Guatemala. It existed from 1949 to 1998. It gained prominence during the government of Jacobo Arbenz. It was one of the main forces of opposition to the various regimes that followed Arbenz's overthrow, and later became a constituent of the URNG guerrilla coalition during the later phase of the country's Civil War.

The party, then under the name Communist Party of Guatemala (Partido Comunista de Guatemala) held its constituent first congress on 28 September 1949. It was founded by the Guatemalan Democratic Vanguard, which had functioned as a fraction within the ruling Revolutionary Action Party for two years. José Manuel Fortuny had been the leader of VDG, and now became general secretary of PCG. At the time of the congress of the party, its membership stood at 43. An earlier Communist Party of Guatemala had been founded in 1922, but was suppressed in 1932. In June 1950 PCG started publishing a weekly newspaper, Octubre, which was distributed amongst workers, peasants and intellectuals throughout the country. In the summer of 1950 a section of the party, led by trade union leader Víctor Manuel Gutiérrez, broke away and formed a separate party, the Guatemalan Revolutionary Workers Party (PROG). PROG made its first public appearance on 1 July. The split had been provoked by differences of opinions concerning the social composition of the Central Committee of the party.

On 2 February 1952 PROG was dissolved and its members returned to PCG. The 2nd congress of PCG, held the same year, elected Gutiérrez as a Central Committee member. The congress also decided to adopt the name PGT, a move which was intended to facilitate legalization of the party. A 1945 legislation banned "international organizations" from working in Guatemala, a legislation used to maintain the illegality of any communist organization. By changing the name to PGT the party wanted to state that it was an independent and national party. At the same time, communists came to use the similar names abroad. One prominent example is the Swiss Party of Labour. However, Although communism had not been officially legalized until the inauguration of reformist president Jacobo Arbenz, the party had participated in political activities more or less openly; some avowed communists were employed in high level positions in the civil service and educational bureaucracy. The PGT program tended to emphasize participation in the trade unions and direct action rather than electoral politics, though at one point there were four PGT members in the 58 seat parliament in the period of 1953 1954. The four PGT MPs were José Alberto Cardoza, Victor Manuel Gutiérrez, Carlos Manuel Pellecer and Antonio Ardón. In the mid 1960s the U. S. State Department estimated the party membership to be approximately 1300. The 1966 presidential elections highlighted differences within the party. After much discussions the party decided to support the candidature of Julio César Méndez, claiming that he represented progressive and democratic sectors. At the same time the party maintained its support to the ongoing armed struggle. After Méndez had been elected he continued the anti communist path of his predecessors, leading to accusations within PGT that the party leadership had adopted an incorrect line ahead of the elections. Some analysts claim that the killings of leaders of the older and more moderate generation within PGT, like Gutiérrez and Castillo, effectively closed the openings towards a peaceful settlement of the emerging civil war and emboldened the younger generation to take the more radical path.

On 29 December 1996 a peace agreement was signed between the government of Álvaro Arzú and the URNG. When the URNG transformed from a coalition of different groups to a unified political party in 1998, the four constituents merged into it. EGP and FAR were the first to dissolve their organizations, then PGT CC and ORPA. The Provisional Leading Junta of URNG included Ricardo Rosales from PGT as its secretary. In October 2005 a group, claiming to represent former members of PGT, PGT NDN, EGP, FAR and JPT, founded a party with the name PGT.