Global Learning
  • Home
  • Defenders of Cuban Socialism
    • UN Charter
    • Declaration of Human Rights
    • Bandung
    • New International Economic Order
    • Non-Aligned Movement
  • Substack editorial column
  • New Cold War articles
  • Friends of Socialist China articles
  • Global Research articles
  • Counterpunch articles
  • Cuba and the world-system
    • Table of Contents and chapter summaries
    • About the author
    • Endorsements
    • Obtaining your copy
  • Blog ¨The View from the South¨
    • Blog Index
    • Posts in reverse chronological order
  • The Voice of Third World Leaders
    • Asia >
      • Ho Chi Minh
      • Xi Jinping, President of China
    • Africa >
      • Kwame Nkrumah
      • Julius Nyerere
    • Latin America >
      • Fidel Castro
      • Hugo Chávez
      • Raúl Castro >
        • 55th anniversary speech, January 1, 1914
        • Opening Speech, CELAC
        • Address at G-77, June 15, 2014
        • Address to National Assembly, July 5, 2014
        • Address to National Assembly, December 20, 2014
        • Speech on Venezuela at ALBA, 3-17-2015
        • Declaration of December 18, 2015 on USA-Cuba relations
        • Speech at ALBA, March 5, 2018
      • Miguel Díaz-Canel >
        • UN address, September 26, 2018
        • 100th annivesary, CP of China
      • Evo Morales >
        • About Evo Morales
        • Address to G-77 plus China, January 8, 2014
        • Address to UN General Assembly, September 24, 2014
      • Rafael Correa >
        • About Rafael Correa
        • Speech at CELAC 1/29/2015
        • Speech at Summit of the Americas 2015
      • Nicolás Maduro
      • Cristina Fernández
      • Cuban Ministry of Foreign Relations >
        • Statement at re-opening of Cuban Embassy in USA, June 20, 2015
        • The visit of Barack Obama to Cuba
        • Declaration on parliamentary coup in Brazil, August 31, 2016
        • Declaration of the Revolutionary Government of Cuba on Venezuela, April 13, 2019
      • ALBA >
        • Declaration of ALBA Political Council, May 21, 2019
        • Declaration on Venezuela, March 17, 2015
        • Declaration on Venezuela, April 10, 2017
      • Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) >
        • Havana Declaration 2014
        • Declaration on Venezuela, March 26
    • Martin Luther King, Jr.
    • International >
      • Peoples’ Summit 2015
      • The Group of 77 >
        • Declaration on a New World Order 2014
        • Declaration on Venezuela 3/26/2015
      • BRICS
      • Non-Aligned Movement
  • Readings
    • Charles McKelvey, Cuba in Global Context
    • Piero Gleijeses, Cuba and Africa
    • Charles McKelvey, Chávez and the Revolution in Venezuela
    • Charles McKelvey, The unfinished agenda of race in USA
    • Charles McKelvey, Marxist-Leninist-Fidelist-Chavist Revolutionary
  • Recommended Books
  • Contact

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Recommended books on Amazon.com; click on image of book to connect

The Open Veins of Latin America: Bananas

9/4/2013

2 Comments

 
Posted October 15, 2013

     Banana enclaves in Honduras, Guatemala, and Costa Rica were developed by North American companies at the beginning of the twentieth century (Galeano 2004:141, 144).  In the 1870s, a company owned by a US citizen was granted land in Costa Rica.  The company, which later became the United Fruit Company, was granted the land as payment for the construction of a railroad.  The company used the land to cultivate bananas for export to markets in the United States.  The labor utilized was low-wage labor of African descent imported from the English-speaking Caribbean (Booth and Walker 1993).  
 
      In 1899, the United Fruit Company began to operate plantations in the Caribbean coast in Guatemala.  Three decades later, it established banana plantations on the Pacific coast.  The plantations utilized labor primarily from the Caribbean and from El Salvador (Booth and Walker 1993).  
 
      In Honduras, banana production grew rapidly in the 1890s, and by the 1920s Honduras had become the world's leading exporter of bananas.  Prior to 1899, there were more than 100 small-scale enterprises, owned by Hondurans, which sold bananas to North American merchants, who in turn sold them in North American markets. In 1899, two North American banana-producing enterprises were formed, and a third was founded in 1905.  As the demand for bananas in the world market rapidly expanded, an increasing amount of capital became necessary in order to clear the tropical forest, develop a transportation system, modernize the productive process and develop a system of refrigeration for maritime transport. The North American producers, with greater access to the necessary credit and capital, were able to become more competitive than the Honduran producers.  By 1911 the three North American producers had displaced the Honduran producers and completely dominated the market (Booth and Walker 1993; Murga 1978:58).

     The North American banana companies were aided by concessions from the Honduran government in their rapid domination of Honduran banana production and in their rapid expansion after 1911.  These concessions included free grants of the richest land, permission to construct railroads and to control the administration of the railroads, and exemptions from taxes and tariffs on imported equipment and construction materials and on exports.  The government permitted the North American companies to have complete control of the entire system of transportation and commerce on the north coast, the region of the banana  production.  These concessions to the banana companies were the culmination of the liberal reform program of the late nineteenth century (Murga 1978:63-66; Molina 1976).

     The liberal reform program in Honduras depended on the development of foreign capital, due to the limited amount of capital in Honduras.  As the government pursued a policy of attracting foreign investment in raw-materials export production, foreign capital became the most important economic and political force in the country.  The banana companies came to own not only banana enterprises, but also related industries, including transportation, communication, energy, food, and retail outlets.  This dominance by foreign economic interests inhibited the development of a national bourgeoisie able to formulate and defend national interests.  Local elites became employees or consultants of foreign companies, serving as intermediaries between them and the government, defending their interests and seeking new concessions.  In this role, local elites were not in a position to accumulate capital.  Given the limited potential for local accumulation of capital, and given the low-wage labor in raw materials export production, the country would not be able to develop the capital or the home market necessary for industrial development (Murga 1978:26, 68, 74-85, 97-98; Meza 1982).

       The strategy of the government of Honduras in the development of the banana export industry illustrates a dependent capitalist model of economic development.  It takes as given that the nation ought to assume the peripheral role in the world-economy.  It provides free and open access of foreign companies to the natural resources and labor of the country.  It does not seek to defend the interests of emerging national producers.  This strategy precludes the possibility for the autonomous economic and cultural development of the nation.  It retards the development of a national bourgeoisie. It condemns the nation to underdevelopment, and it ensures the continued impoverishment of the people.  It was developed in the service of particular interests.

     During the course of the twentieth century, popular movements in Latin America and the Caribbean would emerge that would reject the dependent capitalist model of development.  The popular movements have experienced renewal since 1995, creating a new political reality in the region, a phenomenon that we will discuss in future posts.  
 

References

Booth, John A. and Thomas W. Walker.  1993.  Understanding Central America, Second Edition. Boulder:  Westview Press.

Meza, Victor.  1982.  Honduras: La Evolución de la Crisis. Tegucigalpa: Editorial Universitaria, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras.

Molina Chocano, Guillermo. 1976.  Estado Liberal y Desarrollo Capitalista en Honduras.  Tegucigalpa: Banco Central de Honduras.

Murga Frassinetti, Antonio.  1978.  Enclave y Sociedad en Honduras. Tegucigalpa: Editorial Universitaria, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras.


Key words:  Third World, revolution, colonialism, neocolonialism, imperialism, democracy, national liberation, sovereignty, self-determination, socialism, Marxism, Leninism, Cuba, Latin America, world-system, world-economy, development, underdevelopment, colonial, neocolonial, blog Third World perspective, open veins of Latin America, Galeano, banana, Honduras, Central America


 
        
 


2 Comments
Alan Jenkins
10/15/2013 01:31:56 pm

thank you!

Reply
Alem1962 link
1/13/2022 10:55:40 pm

Thank You for Sharing this informative article! I really like to visit your Product review. It is very useful to everyone Stay healthy and keep safe!

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author: Charles McKelvey

    Retired professor, writer,  and Marxist-Leninist-Fidelist-Chavist revolutionary

    Categories

    All
    American Revolution
    Blog Index
    Bolivia
    Charismatic Leaders
    China
    Critique Of The Left
    Cuban History
    Cuba Today
    Ecuador
    Environment
    French Revolution
    Gay Rights
    Haitian Revolution
    Knowledge
    Latin American History
    Latin American Right
    Latin American Unity
    Marx
    Marxism-Leninism
    Mexican Revolution
    Miscellaneous
    Neocolonialism
    Neoliberalism
    Nicaragua
    North-South Cooperation
    Presidential Elections 2016
    Press
    Public Debate In USA
    Race
    Religion And Revolution
    Revolution
    Russian Revolution
    South-South Cooperation
    Third World
    Trump
    US Ascent
    US Imperialism
    Vanguard
    Venezuela
    Vietnam
    Wallerstein
    Women And Revolution
    World History
    World-System
    World-System Crisis

    Archives

    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    December 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    January 2013

    RSS Feed

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

More Ads


website by Sierra Creation