Establishment of Union Action Committee

Date: January 8, 1928 • Location: San Pedro Carchá, Guatemala

The Committee for Union Action was a Guatemalan trade union federation. Established in 1928 by an anarchist group led by Manuel Bautista Grajeda, the CPAS organized trade unions in several of the country's industries, most notably sugar workers. It also built solidarity between predominantly mestizo urban workers and Indigenous rural workers, and it established ties with the international syndicalist movement through the American Continental Workers' Association. The anarcho-syndicalist organization grew to include several trade union affiliates and around 1,000 members, although it remained a minority in the Guatemalan labor movement and frequently clashed with Communist-led unions. The CPAS was suppressed in 1932 by the dictatorship of Jorge Ubico. Members of the CPAS reemerged following the Guatemalan Revolution of 1944, but they were not able to organize any more anarchist-led unions. The CPAS would remain the largest anarchist organization in Guatemalan history.