The Guardian 5 April, 2006
CPA Guatemala appeal continues
On Sunday March 26, the Communist Party Appeal for the victims of Hurricane Stan continued in Perth, Western Australia where Vinnie Molina, Communist Party Central Committee member, CFMEU organiser and Latin American activist presented a stark first hand account of the conditions facing many people from the Central American republic of Guatemala.
Though the force of the hurricane brought destructive winds and rains which wreaked devastating floods and landslides upon the people, these conditions were made worse by the extensive clearing of the forests by mostly foreign corporations over the last 50-70 years for timber and the planting of shallow rooted commercial crops.
When a tropical storm of this magnitude hits a country in this region the effects on the people under these conditions will be brutally hard and many are still without adequate shelter, schools and hospitals and facing disease and malnutrition.
Vinnie informed the 40 people plus people who attended the house of Dr Catherine Edyvane to support the appeal, that much of the aid earmarked for the country was being used to restore the infrastructure such as roads, bridges, communication and power to areas where transnational corporations operated.
This pro-business policy prolongs the suffering of the people in particular the indigenous Mayan majority.
Comrade Vinnie spoke of the Guatemalan people’s long struggle for democracy and human rights, beginning with the overthrow of dictator Jorge Ubico in 1944.
The Guatemalan people managed to establish a democratic process that for ten years provided the people with basics elements for the construction of an independent national state.
To secure independence in Guatemala it was necessary to nationalise the roads, the building of power supply, and to break the US monopoly in the form of the United Fruit Company.
One of the key issues to solve in this process was to give land to the poor and landless peasantry. While the only way to develop was through land reform, it touched the very heart of the US interests which organised a counter-revolutionary process with direct CIA participation. Ten years of democracy ended in June 1954.
What followed was 36 years of civil war in which the Guatemalan people gave their blood to win their freedom and independence from the brutality of a succession of right-wing governments and US corporate interests.
This function was an international gathering of people from all walks of life. Latin American friends contributed to the evening with food and messages of hope and solidarity from their successful struggles abroad.
Communist Party members were enthusiastic about this solidarity effort and those who could not attend sent their donations in. Over $500 was raised for the Guatemalan appeal.
All proceeds will go to Guatemala in solidarity with the Guatemalan people through the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity, URNG.
A Guatemala Solidarity function will be held in Sydney on Friday April 28. Details will be available in next week’s Guardian. So put the date in your diary now!