The United Fruit Company, then headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts ruled Central America and the Caribbean as an imperial Roman latifundium, with servile wars the natural result.

‘The Honduras Banana Strike’ by William Simons from The Daily Worker. Vol. 9 No. 64. March 16, 1932.

THE March issue of the “Obrero del Caribe” (organ of the Caribbean Sub-Committee of the Latin American Trade Union Confederation) carries interesting news of recent strikes in these countries, among them the strike of the banana workers of Honduras.

Honduras Banana Strike Against United Fruit Co.

The banana workers of the United Fruit Co. went on strike early in January, 1932, against a 20 per cent wage cut. The strike was marked by great militancy, the strikers invading the town of Choloma, shouting “Long Live the Communist Party”; in Las Guanchias, they seized the company stores; along the entire National Railway Line, the agricultural workers and the small banana growers (who had been cut 25 per cent in price on bananas sold by them to the United Fruit Co.) destroyed the fruit of the Company. The Government of Honduras, acting on orders of Mr. Trumbull, general manager in Honduras of the United Fruit Co., declared martial law on January 1. At the same time, the longshoremen went on strike in Tela, backed by all transport workers, altogether involving 2,000 workers. The first troops to arrive on January 3, from Ceiba, recruited from among the unemployed, fraternized with the strikers, and after three days were withdrawn at the request oi the United Fruit Co. The weakness of the Strike Committee, which went into conference with the Government, helped bring about the defeat of the strike. The strong position of the strike in Tela can be judged from the declaration of the Military Commander in Tela of support to the strike at the very beginning, which reflected his fear of the strikers.

The insufficient militant activity of the strike leadership (Honduras Trade Union Federation) made it easier for the government to smash the strike with a thousand troops which took possession of the buildings and wharves of the Company, guarding them with machine guns.

The 4th Congress of the Honduras Trade Union Federation held January 10 to 13, 1932, made a serious study of the strike, drawing up plans to organize the banana workers.

United Fruit Deports Workers

On January 15, United Fruit Company police “arrested” 5 militant workers, Lisandro Castillo, Fernando Canas, Gregorio Benitez, Victor M. Silva and Gabriel Blanco, shipping them out on the ship “Dry” to Puerto Barrios. Refused permission to land, they were again returned to Puerto Cortez, and brought to the Aviation Field at San Pedro le Sula, where according to reports, a twin-engine airplane took them to Salvador.

The United Fruit Co. thus exercises police power in the Central American Empire they own and control. In addition, Mariano Pavon, General Secretary of the Longshoremen’s Union, and J.H. Amador, Secretary of the “Fiat” Trade Union were reported to La Ceiba.

The Anti-Imperialist League calls on all workers’ organizations, on all other anti-imperialist organizations to pass protest resolutions against the terror in Honduras. Particularly in Boston, where the offices of the United Fruit Co. are located, the workers should make an effective protest. Send your protest to the Honduras consulate, 17 Battery Place, New York, N.Y., with a copy to the Anti-Imperialist League, 799 Broadway, room 536, and to the labor and local press.

Honduras Trade Union Congress Greets R.I.L.U.

The Fourth Congress of the Honduras Trade Union Federation, held in January, 1932, sent a resolution of greeting to the Red Trade Union International and to the Latin American Trade Union Confederation. The greeting to the R.I.L.U. particularly calls attention to the dominating role of American Imperialism in Honduras, the paragraph is as follows:

“The crisis from which capitalism suffers, which affects Honduras doubly, since it is a semi-colonial country dependent on Yankee imperialism, which has sharpened the exploitation of the working class, has brought about the widest radicalization of the daily struggles carried through by the banana workers, which culminated with the general strike in the port of Tela (January 2nd to 8th), which was broken by the military forces of the Government of Honduras, faithful lackey of American imperialism.”

The increased exploitation of the banana workers by the United Fruit Co. (recalling the massacre in Columbia of 3,000 workers in December, 1928 by the same company), the smashing of the strike and the arrest of the leaders call for a campaign of support to the workers of Honduras and other Central American countries by the revolutionary proletariat of the United States, by the Communist Party, by the Trade Union Unity League, and by the other mass organizations. The murder of 3,000 workers in Salvador, and of Wainright in Guatemala are indications of the increasing terror carried on by American imperialism in the Caribbean countries. Spread this news in the factories! Among the unemployed! Among your neighbors! Get them to protest! Raise this issue in every meeting of your organization! Raise it at mass meetings! Support of the workers struggles in the colonies, of the fight against terror in the colonies should be a part of our daily work. The quicker we do this, the more lives we will save of the working class fighters in Central America, the stronger will be the revolutionary movement in the colonies, our ally in the fight for world revolution.

The Daily Worker began in 1924 and was published in New York City by the Communist Party US and its predecessor organizations. Among the most long-lasting and important left publications in US history, it had a circulation of 35,000 at its peak. The Daily Worker came from The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919, when it became became The Toiler, paper of the Communist Labor Party. In December 1921 the above-ground Workers Party of America merged the Toiler with the paper Workers Council to found The Worker, which became The Daily Worker beginning January 13, 1924.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n064-NY-mar-16-1932-DW-LOC.pdf