Empires - The American Empire – The Banana Business – more evidence - section (vii) (b)

This is a follow on from the previous video I did on the banana business. If you haven’t seen that video, I would recommend you doing so before watching this one.
Let’s now zoom in on three other countries to get a better understanding of how the United Fruit Company and the US Government conducted themselves.

Colombia
In 1928, some Colombian workers protested at their poor working conditions and low pay. On 12th November of that year, they went on strike. The Company was displeased by this. It refused to negotiate with the workers. The Company also made appeals to the US Administration. Its aim was to get the US Administration to apply pressure to the Colombian government. The Company claimed that the protestors were Communist revolutionaries. It was hoped that by saying this, it would sway the decision. Whether the US believed the story that the UFC had spun about the workers being Communists or not, they duly obliged and they made contact with the Colombian government. The US threatened to invade unless the problem was dealt with – i.e. to act in such a way as to protect the interests of the UFC. The Colombian government capitulated. On December 5th 1928, the protestors gathered in a town square. Colombian troops who had been dispatched to the location, then opened fire on the protestors, killing men, women and children. This was called “the Banana Massacre”.

Costa Rica
The situation for workers in Costa Rica was pretty bad across different sectors of the economy – not just in banana industry. And so, in the early parts of the 20th Century workers began to organise themselves into unions. They then pushed for reform, demanding improvements in general working conditions, a minimum wage and shift work of a maximum of six hours a day. They also called for a number of strikes.
In 1934 many thousands of peasants who worked for the UFC went on strike. This was dubbed “the Great Banana Strike”. On this occasion, the Company engaged in talks with the unions. Promises were made which brought the strike to an end. But the promises were never made good by the Company. Meanwhile, again, as in Columbia, the protesters were labelled as Communist insurrectionists.
To cut a long story short, despite this setback, Costa Rica could be regarded as something of a success story for the workers. They held out, and, in due course, gained some improvements in working conditions having signed an agreement with the Company in 1938.

Guatemala
In Guatemala in the 1950s, the democratically elected leader Arbenz was trying to bring about change in the country. He instituted some land reforms, distributing property to some landless peasants. It should be noted that the UFC owned 50% of the land in Guatemala at the time. Owning land was one way they been able to prevent competition and maintain market dominance. Some of the land they owned was left uncultivated and this is the issue Arbenz was addressing.
Needless to say, the UFC didn’t much care for his approach. In r