Extreme exploitation by the U.S. company leads to the formation and fight of the Honduran Federation of Labor

‘United Fruit Co. Brutality in Honduras’ from The Daily Worker. Vol. 7 No. 167. July 12, 1930.

MERGER AND 25 PER CENT WAGE CUT IN HONDURAS FOLLOWED BY MURDER

The blood of more than 5,000 workers, slaughtered by the Colombian government to keep the favor of the United Fruit, that strangling tentacle of American imperialism in the Caribbean area, is still fresh, when the United Fruit’s puppet government of Honduras is preparing a bloody massacre of the workers.

In no country of Latin America is the United Fruit Co. stronger than in Honduras, where it holds about 35 per cent of its investments, bananas constituting 80 per cent of the country’s foreign commerce.

The wave of mergers manifested itself in Honduras in the acquisition by the United Fruit of the Cuyamel Fruit Co. last December, making the United the sole ruler of this rich land.

The first step of the company after the merger was the sending of a committee to discharge many workers and cut the cost of production 25 per cent, which meant a worsening of the already unbearable conditions of the workers. The deepening of the economic crisis, which has diminished demand and hence production, has further intensified the misery of the workers. This terrible misery has resulted in a willingness of the workers to fight, and in an organized manner.

The Honduran Federation of Labor began to crystallize this movement in a big organization drive, which naturally met vicious persecution by the United Fruit Co. and the government headed by Mejia Colindres Tosta.

The preparation of a strike met with a terror campaign. On June 17, in Progreso, four workers were jailed, Jeremias Escobar, Carvajal, Tomas Flor and Jose Angel Trujillo. The latter, who was organizer of the Federation in the region, was taken to the town of Yoro, where he is being tortured.

On June 19, at Tela, the headquarters of the United Fruit, the following workers were arrested: Hermengildo Briceno, Miguel Ordonez, Gregorio Benitiz and Miguel Rivera. Later, in the same city, on June 23, there were arrested Fernando Canas, Asuncion Arellana and Jose Renderos; while at another important producing center, San Pedro Suia, two militant leaders, Caliz Hererra and J.P. Wainwright, were arrested.

All these workers have been taken to Yoro, an out-of-the-way town, where they are being tortured by the most criminal of all the police agents of the United Fruit Co., Gustavo Pinel, chief of police of Tela. Pinel’s capacity for torturing was shown last March, when some “higher-ups” among the salaried employers of the United Fruit Co. stole thousands of dollars. Pinel tortured to death two of the “smallfry,” to cover up the guilty general agent of the company, who later on committed suicide.

To suppress the organization of the banana workers by the Honduran Federation of Labor, the police have released murderers from the prisons when they promise to obey the United Fruit Co., and the company has armed them as white guards against the workers.

The letter in which the above news is given ends as follows:

“We appeal to you to notify the Communist Party of the United States of America, the Trade Union Unity League and the revolutionary movement of Latin America, telling them what is happening to us, asking them to aid us, not only in mobilizing the workers against the United Fruit Co. and all the foreign ministers and consuls of the lackey government of Honduras, but also to help us materially in our struggle against the United Fruit Co. and the native puppets of American imperialism.

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.

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